Nigerian media personality Taymesan recently opened up about the emotional challenges he faced growing up without both parents.
In an interview with Pulse Nigeria, he reflected on his childhood, sharing that he was raised by his grandmother rather than his mother and father. He noted that, at first, he didn’t see this arrangement as an issue.
He explained, “I didn’t exactly feel any type of way when I was growing up because I thought that was the normal family setting. My granny was well to do and she’d send us to the best schools and I was provided for , but when I started getting older, this lack of familial setting started affecting me in my twenties.”In his twenties, he began to realise some of the issues he developed abandonment issues and other trauma responses.
“I suffered from abandonment issues, I also was very guarded and didn’t want to be seen by people. Even in my teens, my grandma did everything that she could buy I think I needed to be groomed by both parents. So when I didn’t have that I turned to myself and became very independent too soon and I started guarding myself,” he said.
He continued, “When I got into the real world ,I realise that people aren’t as nice as my granny so I started looking for mechanisms to protect myself. I did that for so long that I now have walls up that I couldn’t bring down even if I tried.”
The media personality disclosed that humor was a specific trait he adopted as a means of self-defense.
He said, “Humour was one of the mechanisms I picked up in uni, I could make everybody laugh but I used it to turn everyone away from me.””Humour was one of those things I used to make people happy being around me, so I was accepted. I was looking for validation and I was a chronic people pleaser.”