Teen Gothic

Yep, you read that right. I used to be terrified of the dark, when it's nighttime and all the lights are off. Whenever I slept without a night light I would get violent nightmares, or always felt someone's presence, even though there was noone there. Being fully alone in the dark terrified me. However, when I started listening to goth music, my fear started to dissapear. Why? Because of the lyrical content. For example, let's take the song "In Darkness You Will Feel Alright" by Horror Vacui. It's one of my favourites, and whenever I'm in the dark I just repeat to myself "in darkness i will feel alright", and that genuinely calms me down, I actually start feeling alright! That was the beginning. Then, as I discovered more goth songs, I found the Scary Bitches. Their song "Creepy Crawlies" definitely changed my perspective. Because I wasn't just afraid of the dark, I was specifically afraid of the terrifying eldrich horrors that could hide there. So, let's take a look at the lyrics: "Creepy crawlies crawling around my creepy house, dance around my bedroom when we are a sleepy house, ghouls and ghosts and the walking dead dance in circles around my bed". And, "In the living room we built a little bar where we drink fresh blood and strum guitars. The zombies give music and singing lessons, Frankenstein's monster gives tap dancing lessons". That song is what really "cured" my fear, because I'm a person with a very active and big imagination. My brain basically created a universe where I was a little helpless loner and in the dark there were creatures from horror stories who wanted to attack me. However, when I listened to this song, I felt like I belong to them, like I'm part of this creepy house, and I'm just having fun with all the monsters and ghouls. So my subconscious kinda shifted – instead of being a victim, I became a friend. I genuinely started getting less nightmares! My dreams about monsters no longer included me being lost, tortured, hunted, but instead I was having fun with the monsters. My fear and nightmares had a negative impact on my life, I was waking up feeling uncomfortable instead of refreshed, and I had trouble sleeping sometimes. But listening to goth music somehow affected my brain in such a positive manner! I'll be forever grateful for that! I don't know what you people are gonna think about this post, I've never in my life heard of someone having a similar experience. I'm just a kid with a strong imagination and a passion for music, so I wanted to share this experience with you! Have a good day everyone <3

i feel like there's a stereotype around goth that all goths must be super miserable or smthn, but getting involved in the subculture has been helpful immensely for me. it acts not only as community, but also spending time discovering new music and creating my own music is a great outlet for any general frustrations. plus, as a trans and just generally gender nonconforming individual, i can be freely expressive with my appearance without getting judged for it, at least not within the community. it's also made me not feel as much of a need to mask symptoms of autism, since this subculture is much more accepting of autism and autistic traits than the general populus

tldr i love being goth and am just overall thankful for this subculture and every other person in it