Family

Family
@Gaat, well while I never had the cultural "don't upset mom" element, i will say that the problem of healing vs others has been one that bothers me. This is one reason isolation has been so often my response, sinse I tend to not want to have other people affected by my problems in bad moments, and indeed why my mum's attempts to fix me have not been successful. Indeed while we never had the cultural thing you had, in a very angry moment my mum did tell me at one point "I am a weather vane, when your unhappy I'm unhappy" which unfortunately had the opposite affect to what she wanted meaning I just want to be alone when things get bad and not bother other people, indeed one ironic thing about my relationship with L is that somehow I know! she loves me, I don't just assume she's a nice person who tolerates me or loves me because she has to because I'm related to her.

It's actually one of the few major differences between us, where as somehow i'm certain she loves me, she will sometimes become shy, or worried about sharing part of herself, or afraid she'll offend me and indeed that is something I can in my turn help her recover from, sinse I just don't behave like that, when I love someone, I love someone and placing conditions or being arbitrary would be alien to me.
Suicide is difficult. I had a very strong desire during my abuse, indeed I'm fairly sure if I'd had access to any morphine based drugs or a high enough place to jump from I'd not be hear now, however I'm afraid I can't really discuss that at the moment sinse it's so radically different from where I am now that it literally is unthinkable, like the way when your an adult if you remember throwing your dinner on the floor as a very young child, you had that impulse, but it's not one you could ever imagine having again sinse it's so hard to communicate with.

As to pain, well as I believe I have said previously, for such a long time I walked around with a literal void inside me, I could feel it in my chest and upper arms, it was as though someone had taken a drill and drilled a hole into me. The fact that the closest, the most intimate I'd been with anyone was so disgusting literaly hurt! I'd look down at my body or someone would say something casual about relationships, still worse when I saw people who loved each other. It physically hurt! and I know that often made me an unpleasant person to be around.
Now however that has simply gonee, indeed however things work out with L, whether we can live together or not, that isn't the same anymore, sinse now the most intimate, the closest I've been to anyone was when we kissed.

The physical pain of separation by comparison to that is something I almost welcome. There is a verse in a shuman song that begins "you my soul, you my heart, you my joy, you my pain!" I always assumed when I first learnt this that this referd to something negative, to an inappropriate relationship where the singer was being emotionally tormented by his or her beloved (the song can be sung by either gender).
I didn't realize until now what it means.

L and I will be speaking on the phone, and we'll just get to a point where words literally fail and we just want to touch each other, to be together, indeed I find it hard to think about anything or anyone else at the moment. I just ache to be with her, in my skin, my hands, like when you've been out in the rain and just want to be warm.

the odd thing though is I'd rather feel this than anything else, for all I do hope for actually getting anything practical done that this will at least abate a little, indeed the intensity of this frightens me, and I don't even speak of anything to do with s/x, (sinse that is just something we'll have to deal with). Just the amount my emotions, my thoughts, everything are full of her! and yet when I've explained this she's said herself the feeling is mutual, indeed she will express disbelief, or say "where did you come from" or similar, and the odd thing is those are all things I would say myself.

And yet it's not just about attraction or our feelings, sinse we can have discussions about books or music or words that go on for hours, for that aspect of things we are still just friends and likely always will be even if the other side doesn't work out, ---- we're trying to be sensible, though we've both had our moments.
 
Hey, Gaatt and others

Lately I thought of you as I considered an ongoing conversation I have with my Mom.

Part of my personal work has been considering the family as a system and looking at the different roles people play.

Recently, my Mom and I were speaking about shame and some old patterns of avoiding it. The particular context we were exploring was a lost adolescence for me. I think at that time, she was trying to hold my difficulty with some compassion, if not empathy, which was harder for her given the circumstances and confusion. I told her that the rest of the family tends to not be available for me to discuss this on a richer emotional level. She concurred and said that yes, some of them tend to be too busy.

The ongoing problem of course lies between her and me, and how we have colluded over many years. This is something you and others are probably familiar with. The coming together of her and I separate from the rest of the family has resulted in an incestuous kind of dynamic, where everyone disregards and ignores what is happening in front of them.

I told her that I would now be going about trying to share the loss we discussed with the rest of the family in an emotional way. That seemed to address her pain as well, and this made me feel that I might be slowly starting to open up some space to breathe and share things with everyone.

It's very, very slow, of course, but there nonetheless.

This all seemed to be similar to the struggle mentioned here of seeing the bigger picture, even while trying to resolve the specific dynamics.

FB
 
Hi FB,

focusedbody said:
I told her (my Mom) that I would now be going about trying to share the loss we discussed with the rest of the family in an emotional way. That seemed to address her pain as well, and this made me feel that I might be slowly starting to open up some space to breathe and share things with everyone.
Wow! This is really great! and very courageous! I wish you every success in your endeavour. At the very least you will discover the limits to openness of the other members of your family. This will be good for you to know so that you can feel relieved that you have unburdened yourself of the part in the secrecy you have played without demanding that others meet you at your level. They may not be able. On the other hand, maybe they will! I'm thrilled even considering the possibility.

In my family, the silence still reigns (on their part). I have mentioned the specific acts that were hurtful to me in my youth to my mother and my sister. I'm not confident that my mother recognized the severity of the consequences of her actions. (They were covert and the violence was difficult to see clearly. It was contained in a strongly patriarchal social structure which added to the perceived threat). My sister chalked it up to "menopause". My father was supremely over-protective of my mother's emotional world even though he shamed her fairly regularly. He was also emotionally crippled. He had sole access to anger (no one else was allowed this emotion and he could not express vulnerability at all). Both "family" and "motherhood" were quasi-sacred concepts to him that could not be challenged. Open communication with him at a level that demanded some ability to feel emotion was virtually impossible. Fortunately, he's dead. Open conversations with my brother are challenging. He's not keen on embracing any topic with an emotional component to it. So I keep the rare conversation I have with him light. I'm careful with the information I give the community outside my family as I pursue meeting my own needs with them.

Best wishes to you in your efforts. Please keep us posted! I'm excited for you. :-)

Sincerely,

GAATT
 
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gaatt said:
The connection between avoiding physical death and healing, in my mind, is quite clear. I still experience this conflict fairly regularly and have to work my way through the fear.

Gaatt:

This conflict is starting become more familiar in my mind.

There is a kind of relief in letting go of the need to "protect" Mom. As I think about it, this is probably a necessary part of development for most people. Efforts that come to terms with this begin to reveal the unhealthy part of the bond. Slowly accepting the importance of seeing one another seems important.

I wonder how trust plays into this. There is a trust in oneself as you move from where you were nurtured. And there is also a growing trust in how one communicates to the person who nurtured you, as you feel secure in the relationship where that person can be seen.

This kind of trust is for me, a worthwhile goal. It lets me embrace the simplicity of familial love.

There is, as you say, a working through of fear as part of this process.

I admire your strength and ability to express yourself articulately on the subject.

With hope for healing,

FB
 
Hi FB,

Thanks! I get alot out of writing here and hearing from you and other men who are healing themselves in ways that have similarities with my own healing path. Thanks for being here with me. :-)

focusedbody said:
I wonder how trust plays into this. There is a trust in oneself as you move from where you were nurtured.
This piece is important for me. The aggression inherent in the dynamics of my youth and the consequent neglect of crucial yet subtle survival related needs undermined my ability to trust most people. I certainly feel very leery of women these days (and not very confident in local men either). Internally, I find it challenging to stay on track with the needs of the part of me that is still in need of healing. I am slowing developing that ability. I really like that you mention "trust in oneself". I posted a note in the "progress" forum recently about my naturopath's definition of success: "expressing clearly one's needs in community". It snaps me out of my childhood inability to express myself clearly. How the community responds is somewhat irrelevant! It'll just define whether I have to face the fear of being supported for a change or get creative and find other ways to meet my needs. That takes a certain confidence that I can survive rejection (and that I have the wisdom to choose my "community" carefully). It's good for me to feel my success once I've gathered the courage to express myself clearly (and before a response or lack of it has materialized). It's helping me trust in my own ability to care and vouch for myself as you mention.

Thanks for writing.

Sincerely,

GAATT
 
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gaatt said:
It snaps me out of my childhood inability to express myself clearly.

Gaatt:

My guess is that you are not alone in this. It seems to me that everyone struggles to some extent with finding ways to overcome places that are hard to express.

Being connected to my own evolution and process helps, and also helps me see others a little better.

I think that it takes bravery to explore pain and find out more about it. Perhaps the difficulty with our mothers is that for some time there was an unconscious empathizing that covered it and maybe even addressed it, yet also got entangled in it. This kind of identification scares me because it is the material that could make for an unhealthy bond. Needs need to be spoken out loud.

Gaining perspective bit by bit brings on some panic nonetheless. There is even a kind of terror there. It can be debilitating and confusing. Overall, I think that the fear of not being able to escape the experience is the source of the most frightening sensations.

I try to be patient with all the feelings involved, as that allows some awareness. Sometimes when I gain ground on knowing what I'm truly feeling, the pain is less.

Wishing you safe travels on your path,

FB
 
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Hi FB,
focusedbody said:
Needs need to be spoken out loud.
Yes. I think adult needs definitely need to be communicated clearly and satisfied amongst adults. Some "communities" are better at this than others. My birth family isn't particularly good at this. I think many of my childhood woundings came from adults not supporting each other enough to prevent me from taking on my mother's emotional and sexual turmoil and having it imposed upon me forcibly. I also didn't have the freedom to just get up and leave so that I could get my needs met better elsewhere. I suppose much of my process is to fully embrace taking responsibility for my needs and seeking support without taking out my frustration on my body (when it doesn't respond quite the way I hoped it would) or people who seem to be unwilling to help me in the way I would prefer.

Best wishes on your journey too. Thanks for writing.

Sincerely,

GAATT
 
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