332: What if the worst was yet to come?
This Is Actually Happening
Wondery
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2024
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After healing from a major trauma as a teenager, featured in Episode 111 of this show, our storyteller returns to share a dramatic follow up. In this episode, in the wake of his grandmother’s death, he begins taking a volatile medication cocktail and suffers a severe manic break, living on the streets among society’s most disregarded, confronting his deepest shadows and being forced to piece his life back together once again.
Today’s guest requested to remain Anonymous. If you want to reach out to him, please email him at [email protected].
Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Aviva Lipkowitz
Content/Trigger Warnings: drug use, death, grooming, sexual exploitation, sexual assault & rape, manic break/manic behavior, explicit language
Social Media:
Instagram: @actuallyhappening
Twitter: @TIAHPodcast
Website: thisisactuallyhappening.com
Website for Andrew Waits: andrewwaits.com
Website for Aviva Lipkowitz: avivalipkowitz.com
Support the Show: Support The Show on Patreon: patreon.com/happening
Wondery Plus: All episodes of the show prior to episode #130 are now part of the Wondery Plus premium service. To access the full catalog of episodes, and get all episodes ad free, sign up for Wondery Plus at wondery.com/plus
Shop at the Store: The This Is Actually Happening online store is now officially open. Follow this link: thisisactuallyhappening.com/shop to access branded t-shirts, posters, stickers and more from the shop.
Transcripts: Full transcripts of each episode are now available on the website, thisisactuallyhappening.com
Intro Music: "Illabye" – Tipper
Music Bed: Re-Entry
Services
If you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources:
National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Text or Call 988
National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Wundry Plus subscribers can listen to exclusive episodes of This Is Actually Happening by joining |
| 0:05.7 | Wundry Plus in the Wundry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09.7 | This is Actually Happening features real experiences that often include traumatic events. |
| 0:14.0 | Please consult the show notes for specific content warnings on each episode and for more information |
| 0:18.1 | about support services. Hi listeners. Today we have a very unique episode. In 2018 in episode one 11 we featured a man who as a teenager was groomed and |
| 0:36.8 | assaulted by a mentor. At the time we released the episode he was in his late |
| 0:40.6 | 30s. He was in a grounded healed place reflecting on his teenage trauma and the path he had taken since. |
| 0:47.0 | Then, this past year he contacted me with a dramatic update on what had happened since, |
| 0:52.0 | and I decided to speak to him again. |
| 0:54.4 | Last week we released his previous episode so you could have some context, and I encourage |
| 0:58.0 | you to listen to the episode back to back with this one, so you can hear the full arc of |
| 1:01.9 | his story. But for those of you who didn't listen to it or don't have time for both, here is a brief recap outlining what all he'd been through prior to 2018, summarizing what was featured in episode 111. As a teenager, |
| 1:13.0 | teenager, he was an artistic and unconventional kid, who felt the absence of both of his parents in the wake of their divorce. |
| 1:21.0 | Alone and isolated, he reconnected with his eccentric art teacher |
| 1:24.8 | developing a father-like bond with him, which deepened as he became immersed in his teachers |
| 1:29.4 | esoteric and New Age ideas, as the teacher continued to make him feel like he was a uniquely gifted and spiritually enlightened being. |
| 1:36.5 | Then during a pivotal weekend at his teacher's home, our storyteller underwent a ceremonial |
| 1:41.8 | anointment where he was put through hypnosis and entered into a trance. |
| 1:46.4 | All of this was a canvas for the teacher to groom him for a sexually abusive relationship, which in the aftermath |
| 1:52.0 | took on a life of its own causing him to question |
| 1:54.9 | his sexuality, his identity, and his reality. |
| 1:58.1 | By the time I met with our storyteller to record episode 111, he had had years of therapy and healing, unraveling the layers of his |
... |
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