Fortunately for me, overcoming trauma (mostly psychological) is simply being able to reflect on it.

Ya my mom was VERY controlling. Ya what drove her was her massive religious (Christian) upbringing - control and never considering my feelings and my wants. Ya there was no one else in my life to help me - no aunts, uncles, grandparents, dad, etc. Ya there were exterior forces influencing me greatly - the Vietnam War - I was just a kid at the time. The Vietnam War with its death, burning of people alive, coffins coming back to The States, the war protests, and my parents demand that I SERVE IN THE WAR WHEN I GREW UP. (It's beyond the scope of this post to say how the war tied into my sexuality, but it did greatly.)

As mentioned in the book "Overcoming Childhood Trauma, A self help guide using cognitive behavior techniques", simply being able to reflect on trauma can sometimes help a person overcome the trauma. This technique is helping me.

I am able to reflect on the trauma better and better each month. It's a massive undertaking because there's so much trauma and it lasted 5 to 7 years. Breaking off a workable chunk of trauma and reflecting on it, draining its crippling effects, is working. The latest chunk is reflecting on my mom and the influence of religion on her and then on me.

Finding a way to put myself into an environment where I feel unchallenged and untreated, has helped greatly. I go camping in the desert where I find absolute peace.

Long ways to go but I have come a long way. I thank every person here on ECs for their interactions. Without your interactions I would not be here writing this post.