Guest Post: Christine's Introduction

by Christine

My online name is Christine and I have struggled with my story a bit. Think of movies like “Memento” and “The English Patient” where issues and plot-lines get scrambled and only as the movie progresses does the true story come to light.

Where do I start? Firstly my mother’s death and what occurred as a result. I have changed names and left out identifying personal details.

"I was only 6. I remember my mother in bed and nurses coming to see her then the very next morning she was dead. My older brother, my little sister and I were in shock. My Dad was inconsolable. Years later when I got all my family tree records I learned that she had died of appendicitis; if only she had been treated earlier she may have lived.

Afterwards my father and my grandmother (mother’s side) had a massive fight and I never saw my mother’s side of the family again. We moved from my country town to Sydney where my father took on a housekeeper.

Irene was from England, was also a widow and had her own little boy. My father and Irene got married only several months after she moved in. My father and her destroyed all my mother’s photos, made me call Irene “Mum”, refused to talk about my mother – they made me pretend that she never existed. My new family grew further; in addition to Irene’s boy two step-sisters were born which made our household grow even poorer. I was so ashamed of how I looked compared to everyone else. I only ever got homemade haircuts, old second-hand clothes and I only ever had school shoes.

We were poor because my mother had come from a wealthy family, the third of four girls. She had fallen for a very handsome, dashing farmer’s son. Her line was from 19^th century free settlers, his was convicts and bushrangers. She was well-educated, musical and intelligent, he only had a sixth grade education and when I was a teenager he was a real embarrassment to me.

She had not adapted well to living on a budget and I think some of their fights I remember were over finances. I remember sometimes her packing suitcases and me crying because I was so scared. After her death it took years for my father to pay off all her debts.

I was the oldest girl in the house, I was made to do all the housework and help Irene out all the time. I never got any encouragement; she expected so much of me. Irene always gave Todd special treatment over us and even my step-sisters. Nothing I did was ever good enough for her. Even when I got a scholarship to a private school secondary school all she could say is “that’s nice” and that’s all. You’ve had it so easy compared to me…."

I am coming clean now. That is my own mother’s story. The snobby fixation on outward appearances and envious nature that comes out clearly through those several short paragraphs do not belong to me. The somewhat childish language I used is the wording I remember from me hearing that story many times very early on, probably starting about when I was about 6 when she lost her own mother.

I am the oldest of four children, two sisters and a very little brother (born when I was 14).

As I got older the details of what she experienced and later on all her marital problems got more intimate and distasteful.  Incredibly my father didn’t fall for all her mind games and sob stories so I - and later on my sisters - got to hear it all instead. (My siblings and I have concluded he kept us literally sane – he was NOT an enabling father at all. A lot of strife, sometimes a single slap to shut her up when she started screaming but we never had to deny reality to keep us functioning.)

At first I felt honoured with all these secrets, perhaps in my mind I was being treated like a big girl. The anniversaries of her mother’s death were very difficult and draining. The atmosphere was very morbid. She who was not allowed to mourn in a way forced her children to mourn with her for the grandmother they had never known.  I think the psychological term is “dysfunctional grieving”. It has completely overtaken her life. I have no idea why she has not sought real long-term counselling to overcome her grief. My sister said my mother went to some counselling until she felt better. Not was better objectively, felt better.

That sister told me that my mother still visits mediums to contact her mother.  My brother recently told me that she still visits graveyards to read complete strangers’ tombstones. My teenage son listening to this conversation piped up “that’s sick, is she an Emo?”  Yes I suppose he’s right – fixated on death, writing death poetry while a teenager, kissing her second husband for the first time in a graveyard… as I said to my sister she loves death.

She always cared more about her dead mother than us. E.g. years ago when I told her I was having major potentially life-threatening surgery on March 12^th she said ”my mother died on the 13^th…” and pulled the sad face she does when she wants to be comforted .

I have looked for other survivor stories about growing up with parents who used personal struggles about death of loved ones to manipulate their children and meet their own emotional needs or else. She truly is an emotional vampire.

Christine

P.S. for your interests’ sake this is why it sounds like I now have nothing to do with my mother.  http://www.christianforums.com/t7674250-2/#post61465411  (read following entries too). 

And no she has not called me since and I have not called her. Whether or not this is permanent only time will tell.

Journey’s End? Or is this just the Intermission?

by Quercus

A while back I pondered on the possibility of a generalized ACoN ‘road map’, created in a collaborative effort by many ACoNs (new and old alike).  I always picture the map of Middle Earth that Tolkien drew for The Lord of the Rings. There are so many fantastic parallels in that wonderful epic to the life and journey of an ACoN – the unblinking, unceasing evil eye of the dark lord Sauron searching for his quarry; the many enemies; the corrupting power of the ring; the seemingly impossible task; the power imbalances; the unlikely collaborations and how people from all walks of life (in the case of the story, of all species – dwarves, elves, men, hobbits, ents, etc.) band together and succeed in the destruction of the ring (and the return of Sauron) or die fighting for the greater good. (Sometimes I see our online ‘community’ as the Concil of Elrond, particularly when we debate contentious issues!).

from lotr.wikia.com

But like The Lord of the Rings, the ACoN journey is full of surprises, twists, turns, tight-squeezes and minor disasters. It’s too long and complicated a story to tell, and the details would vary so widely from one ACoN to the next that it’s impractical to try.

Oh there's no place like 'home' for the holidays....

I went ‘home’ for Christmas (‘home’ being where the NParents are) for a short visit. I knew it would be terrible. I knew that there were very good reasons for me not to go, but there were just as many good reasons to go. I decided to face my fears and see what would happen. It would be a good test to see if I’ve made any progress at all in my interaction with my NFOO’s pathological triangles and NM’s evil web of lies and deceit. Either things would be a little different, or it’d be business as usual. I had my safety in the form of my psychologist’s appointment pre-scheduled for the following week, and I decided I’d throw myself in the deep end to see how I’d fare.

And this is why I’m starting to wonder if I haven’t reached the end of my ACoN journey, or an intermission near the end.  Things were completely different, for me. And things were utterly, utterly the same old when it came to THEM. With one notable, extremely interesting difference – “them” changed. Former NGC has seemingly lost his ‘N’. He was a completely different person! He was nice! Legitimately compassionate, considerate and dare I say even humble! His self-effacing jokes seemed wholly alien to me – I had never, ever seen a tolerable, decent even attractive side to my NGC’s personality. And here he was being mature, friendly, even kind!

No, don’t worry – my Narc radar is still keenly tuned and honed in on him, waiting for the first tell-tale slip-up to indicate that the dangerous narcissism was merely laying low for its own purposes! I can’t trust him, and thanks to my training with my fantastic psychologist, I won’t find myself in a situation in which I’m forced to trust him, either. My mantra: Separation, not enmeshment. Space between, zealously defended! A friend of mine says – “A poisonous snake who has just shed his skin is beautiful. Beautiful and extra deadly!”. 

However, I really think a huge change has come over NGC. We don't know why or how or what happened (I would speculate that there was a falling-out between NM and NGC - she's a control freak after all, and maybe she went too far...). After discussing it with my DH, my psychologist and a friend, we feel that it is indicative of NM ‘losing her grip’ on the FOO. No longer does she sit in the middle of her web, controlling communication. She’s made a miscalculation somewhere; her children have stopped relying upon her. She didn’t enmesh them enough, or infantilize sufficiently. Or perhaps she did – those of us that appear to be ‘free’ (sadly not all, yet) are those who have stable partners or spouses. It’s those of us that have lives that rarely include NM that have made ‘progress’. The logical conclusion is that the proximity and involvement of my NM in my life retarded personal growth. Get away from her influence, and 'nature' takes its course again. NGC had moved away and began a life elsewhere....

Have I got The Sixth Sense?

In the ironically-named living room, I saw dead people all around me. Zombies, maybe robots, acting out their lines by rote, never deviating from the script. I could have anticipated just about every statement, sentence, smile, frown, grunt that day. It was rehearsed. It was the same play every year at this time. I can’t express to you how dead it all seemed. Empty. Small-talk. Niceties. The same niceties over and over again (this year with the help of extra repetition, courtesy an elder relative with Alzheimer’s disease!). Just me, DH and NGC and his partner seemed to be ‘alive’ or animated. Apart. Separate. As if we were the only ones who didn’t have strings attached like marionettes. I felt for my siblings that were still entangled, playing the part, lifelessly. 

But most of all, I pitied my EF. He was awful to me and DH. He was pathetic in every sense of the word. He was her henchman, going to battle to win her heart by slaying the hated Daughter-Beast with ‘love’ (read ‘guilt trips’!). He tried to humiliate us, loudly, repeatedly, in front of everyone else. (You can imagine how uncomfortable it would be to be a guest there, eh?!). We didn’t even get our coats and shoes off before he berated us, chided us, then accused us of hiding ourselves away. Three times before I even stepped foot on the carpet did he smother us with hugs and loudly proclaim the intolerable amount of time that we’ve been away. He also seemed to be insisting that we shout out a light-hearted apology and explanation as to our absence, so that we could move on and forget that I ever dared to stand up to them at all, ever. I didn't cower. And so the cycle repeated until someone else intervened and the conversation deviated.

It was a bizarre experience, like walking into a literal mad-house. The moment me and DH crossed the threshold, the NParents declared everything “as it was”, and returned to their comfortable status quo of me as the black-sheep scapegoat rescuer/persecutor. Only this time, I had cut my strings...

Some small vestiges of pre-programming still exist in me...

The beauty of it all was that only once did I react in a way that was pre-programmed by NM. She had made a horrible ‘joke’ that made her look like the most petty, insecure, jealous cow of a woman, and rather than let her flounder in her immense social faux-pas, I rescued her. Automatically. It took me a week to realise what I had done – I jumped in with a joke of my own and deflected all the attention back to me, changing the topic. I played the jester, intervening and rescuing with humour. And it was entirely automatic. I wish I could have prevented myself from rescuing – how fascinating it would have been to see who said what in response to her spiteful comment! I didn’t just rescue her, either; I rescued the sibling who had ‘mistakenly’ honoured my grandmother when they clearly were supposed to have publicly exulted NM. This was what NM was bitterly attempting to 'correct'. It was not a conscious decision for me to play the joker, it was a learned childhood response. Oh well. Of all the reactions I could have unwittingly had, I think this one is the most harmless.

Curiouser and curiouser... bizarre behaviour is the norm

What else happened? Oh yes. NM wouldn’t hug me (which was great – I hugged her and actually wanted to, thinking that for once she had deferred to me! Probably not, but I was happy with the change!), and EF smothered us. But in a short moment of privacy, I hugged EF. I wanted to see what he’d say or do while he was ‘off-stage’. I was not hugged back, and he quickly retreated to the proceedings. It was later pointed out to me by a friend that perhaps he was punishing me, and that I was to have felt slighted. I didn’t at the time – to me it was conclusive proof that he couldn’t miss me half as much as he shouted when we arrived, and that he cares still only for himself, which means keeping loyal to NM. I was not disappointed; I was validated in my suspicions! What may have been meant to hurt me actually made me feel better.

NM beamed once when I said that her dessert was superior to that of my own and of DH’s mother’s, and glowered at me venomously when I suggested an alternative spice in a dish during dinner (who am I to question the Queen’s cuisine?!). It was hilarious. I was cracking up on the inside! How dreadful that baking and vegetable culinary feats and the compliments or lack thereof were what would pull my NM’s chains so violently! How ridiculous it is! The mundane is what cranks her motor, and important, vital concerns, such as the happiness and health of her children fails to register at all!

A Royal Decree on High Treason, in time for next Christmas

Not once did they ask me how I was. They asked how my career was going, and I think more so to keep tabs on what I had that they wanted, but they never asked me or DH how we were feeling after all the tumult and angry emails that were exchanged (or more correctly received in our case!). Our complaints, our objections to their atrocious behaviour during the course of the last year were obviously dismissed. Were we thanked for being so gracious as to attend their wretched gathering? Well of course not, but the total lack of gratitude was jaw-dropping. Even just a quick and courteous, “I’m glad you made it!” would have been so appropriate given the circumstances.

Instead, we got a loud tirade from EF, for all to hear (shouted so that I would hear from the other room), that it was morally reprehensible to not see your mother at Christmas. This sentiment was rephrased and repeated two or three times, without context or even the pretext of conversation, and declared as if he was reading a decree from Her Highness the Queen of Narcissism herself. It was an awkward subject to carry on with as polite small talk. I felt sorry for the in-laws at the table. 

Here my NParents were, basically brow-beating me for even thinking of not showing up at Christmastime! It’s hysterical – strategically, it’s retarded! Am I going to want to show up next year? No! Will I? Of course not! Though to be honest, that was predetermined before this proclamation that, “All children MUST spent Christmas with their mothers! It is completely selfish and terrible not to! It’s totally wrong to not see your mother at Christmas!” Guess what? Black sheep Quercus is going to be very much ‘in the wrong’ next year. She’ll be happily sipping a Mai Tai on the beach at the time, while she’s committing the most heinous of all treasonous acts.....! Good grief, it really is like living in the Feudal days! “Give Tribute to Her Majesty, or DIE!” Bring it, say I. I will fight to the death, which I now doubt will be necessary, for my freedom!

Course change! We can't go there now!

There was something else that happened which was so ridiculous as to be amusing, something which only a few short months ago might have sent me running in a claustrophobic panic towards suicide (funny how differently I see the world now!). My NParents got it into their heads that me and DH would be moving to a country that is of obvious value and worth to them (a trendy, fashionable location). NM was out of her skull with jealousy, as usual. Though we had only mentioned the possibility of a prospective job in said country, they had been obsessively planning their move (permanent or otherwise) to the same place all this time! And when I failed to notice the deliberately set ‘props’, EF picked up the language program boxes and loudly proclaimed that they were both learning the language and would be fluent in a short time. (DH said in retrospect that EF and NM were trying to prove that they had a legitimate reason to move where we move, and that we couldn’t deny them the opportunity to use their newly-learned language, and so they’d have no barriers to invading our new home. I think he’s right. I also think they were trying to goad us into saying, “Oh! You’re learning to speak _____! So are we! We’ll be living at (full address) in (specific number of days and hours)!”, with which information they could then call the travel agent and immediately book their tickets....).

Then another relative asked us point-blank if we were still planning to move to this country. “Planning? Good Heavens, no! We haven’t got any concrete plans at all yet! In fact, we’ve received job offers (elsewhere), and so that seems like the best option so far. No plans at all either way, though!” I said.

NM, from out of nowhere, started into a impassioned barrage of questioning: “Where exactly? What coast is that? And that’s closest to which city?! When are you leaving?!” This is the most she said to me all day, and I felt like I was being interrogated with these rapid-fire questions and her reptilian glare. DH and I spat the answers out as fast as they came. (Thank you, God, for providing us with the words on the spot like that!). We foiled them, brilliantly. So much for their $300 x 2 language learning packs. They can visit whichever country they wish, of course, including that one. But it no longer looks like we’ll be there when they do...! I’m quite curious to see what will happen now! Before I would have been up all night, scared out of my mind that there was no where we could go that they won’t follow. 

NM has been hinting consistently for more information on where exactly we went while on honeymoon, and I know it’s so she can go to the same places but stay in the penthouse suite, or the five star-plus luxury resort next door, and make sure I hear all about how she has what I have, but better. It’s always, ALWAYS the way! She can’t just do something nice for herself that she likes – she has to do what I’ve done, only bigger and better, and I must be made aware of it! (I don’t know how anyone could possibly enjoy their life, living the way she does. It’s stupid! Do what you want to do, don’t copy and compete with someone else!). When I fail to boil over in the jealousy she needs me to feel, she'll say, "Look how jealous you are! You're doing a good job of hiding it, but I'm your mother - I can see it! You're so jealous!" My NM is not happy unless I'm jealous of her, and it's because she's chronically jealous of me. Jealous of things not worth being jealous of, too! She doesn't question what she covets - she repeats the same, "It's not fair!" cutesy whine, and then goes and gets whatever it is for herself, only bigger and better. And then she finds a way to notify me of her acquisition.... This cycle will continue until the day one of us dies, unless I step out of the web and leave. Which I have. I have no intention to return. I can't, not now. I've seen too much.

It's still all about me having her grandkids....

There were a few other invasive inquisitions on time-frames, our plans, our home (presumably to see if it’s For Sale yet or not), and that sort of thing. Daughter-in-law said something about her providing them grandchildren, and NM failed to react. I said something about getting dogs and never having kids, and NM looked as if she was going to lunge at me with a knife. It’s beyond pathetic and strange now. NM has every opportunity to live a good life, full of healthy, loving relationships and normal, fulfilling circumstances. But all she wants is what I have or could have. All of it, any of it, NOW NOW NOW!

DH reminded me later of her last threatening email, a few months ago now. I had read it as a present-tense guilt-trip for ‘cutting her out of my life’, but DH pointed out what I missed – the future-tense threat of me having her grandchildren without her in the picture. NM’s been plotting and planning to get at my kids for years. And my ‘kids’ don’t exist! Short of buying a plane ticket, my sick and twisted NParents have been learning a language and preparing to relocate where they thought we’d relocate. And they spent Christmas surreptitiously pumping us for information, with a special emphasis on ‘when’, followed by ‘where’. And we had the best alibi ever. It’ll be hard for them to believe that we’re not headed to where we mentioned. Between you and me, I’m playing Carmen Sandiego with them, sending them on a wild goose chase around the world while I sneak off elsewhere.

So that was it. We turned up for Christmas despite many good reasons not to, and rather than being thanked or even just treated somewhat respectfully, my NParents pushed the ‘reset’ button on the whole of last year and all my hard earned progress in therapy would have been wiped out instantly and forgotten, if they truly had the power to ‘reset’ it all. The rotten, verging-on-the-criminal transgressions of my NM throughout my life and even in the preceding months would be instantly forgotten. I would crawl back under their thumb, apologizing all the way, and be subjected again to their cruel machinations. Just like that, it was all over. My rebellion was blotted out, paved over and erased from history!

But unfortunately, as my friend cheekily says, I’ve eaten from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There’s no going back. My whole world has changed, thanks to therapy and Divine Intervention. I see things I never saw before. It’s like in a video game, where you’ve found some tool that allows you to jump across places you couldn’t previously – I’ll never play the same ‘level’ the same way ever again! The level doesn’t change, but I did. And now I can bypass every pit, every trap quite easily. It’s time to move on to the next level, to a new challenge.

And now for my shrink's opinion...

When I got back to my psychologist’s office, I told them about my trip ‘home’. I didn’t cry once, I didn’t shake, and I found myself laughing and joking as I related the pathetic and very nearly humorous stunts my NParents pulled! He interrupted – 

“It appears as if you went, and rather than engaging in the pathology, you were simply an observer.”

And it felt good. So good. But also a little sad. I kept telling my shrink about my EF, about how ‘dead’ he must be! And even the other relatives – the play they were acting in. It was so two-dimensional, so flat, so empty! It was like having a party in a tomb! Or maybe just hanging out with the animatronic kids from the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride in Disneyland – it gets really boring, really lonely real quick when they start repeating the same set of movements for the umpteenth time. It was like that with my family. There’s no real limit to which their pathology won’t stretch (and that still concerns me – I think moving elsewhere will really have to be like entering into the Witness Protection Programme), but they have a very predictable nature and only so many set-moves. That being said, I’m not sticking around to see what else they can conjure up!

I’m not angry anymore, and this is why I’m starting to wonder if I’m not on the way ‘out’ of this ACoN journey. All of our circumstances vary greatly, but I think I’ve pretty well dealt with all the crap my NFOO produced now (perhaps it wasn’t as comparatively extreme as what you faced. But I’ll warn anyone against comparing your life to the life of anyone else’s! Never compare! There’s no good basis for comparison anyway – our lives and circumstances and personalities are so vastly different that we are just apples to oranges at best).

I told my psychologist that I was worried that I wasn’t more angry at my EF. I said that it seemed to me that he and my DH and my friend all want me to see that EF’s a real jerk, and keep the blame where it should be, for my own safety’s sake.

“Maybe you no longer need to assign blame,” said the shrink. “Maybe you’ve gone past that, and now you see the tragedy of the lives of your parents.”

I do. I also see very clearly that walking away, maintaining an enormous distance between us, is the only option for me. I’m not going to miss them. I’m not even going to feel badly, or guilty, for ‘cutting them out of my life’. What’s there to feel guilty for? They keep playing the same sick scene over-and-over again, and it’s ‘killing me’! No, it’s not me ‘killing my mother’ or ‘breaking my mother’s heart’! The scene, the play – that was killing me! 'Cause I was the character getting killed off in each scene, over and over and over again! 

And so I leave, happily, and find my fortune elsewhere. It doesn’t suit them well if I leave, but that’s not my problem. Nor is it my responsibility. Nor will it kill my mother, break her heart, nor any of that awful stuff. She is the master of her own destiny. She will decide if she lives or dies, thrives or cries, and all of that, all of her life, is independent of me and my life.

 

Going back to my beloved Venn diagrams, I now see it this way:

In the set of “The Universe”, there is a subset of “Me and my Mom”. At first, I was wholly enmeshed:

In time, I became a little less enmeshed. And I met and married a wonderful man, developed a personal relationship with God, and began therapy with a competent, caring psychologist:

And this is where I am now. There is something I want to point out – I didn’t take anything away from my NM when I became separate. Her surface area, pi x radius(squared), is the same as it ever was. She occupies the same amount of space as she ever did:

On the other hand, I gained surface area as the overlap faded and my surface became uncovered. So now, instead of NM and a tiny sliver of ‘me’, the enmeshed daughter, there is the complete set of NM, and the complete set of me, and as separate individuals, we account for more area. We grew, so to speak. Well, I did, anyway. But overall there was a net gain. I also like that "me" rhymes with "free"....!

Stepping Down to Part-Time Blogging

I’m thinking about taking a bit of a step back from blogging. I think I might have reached burn-out, which is sooner than I anticipated. I really do want to continue to help facilitate ACoNs to find ACoNs, so I won’t disappear totally. But I wanted to state that I feel that I reached a natural rest-stop on my journey, and I fully intend to take it! 

I haven't forgotten the Survey results! I'll take a look at them and I'll publish the raw results as well as all the correlations I can calculate very soon!

I hope everyone survived the holidays well. I know it can be a terrible time of year, and I fully expected my holidays to be awful. But they weren't. It turns out that I hadn't actually deliberately spent time with my NFOO in a year. I thought everyone was exaggerating, but DH and I did the arithmetic - it was Christmas last year when I voluntarily spent time with them (the other times were them showing up unannounced and being turned away, and I think the constant onslaught of guilt-tripping emails and text messages and Facebook posts just made it feel like they were physically here all the time!). A whole year it took, and it didn't even feel like a year, for me to be able to come in on different footing.

A year well spent. 

I don't have any resolutions for 2013. I'm just looking forward to the year. I bought flowers that represented (in the Victorian Language of Flowers) "truth" and "confidence" for New Year's Day, and so I think I'll run with that accidental theme (gorgeous green and white chrysanthemums, and white polyanthus!).

My wish for all other ACoNs out there is the following:

• That you develop a deep and personal relationship with the Divine, and know how completely precious and valuable you are,
• That you find a way to invest in your own mental health - I highly recommend perusing the webpages of nearby psychologists and registered therapists, interviewing your top choices (money may be a consideration - sliding scale? Covered by your health plan?), and choosing a psychologist that you feel confident is competent and capable. I thank God for the one I see. He's very nondescript, sits quietly and listens. He stood out as a no-nonsense, serious but kindly therapist. I needed someone who knew what the heck they were doing. I had a TERRIBLE therapist for a short time, once, that did almost more damage than good! So I recommend shopping around, and seriously investing in yourself! Never mind the gym and weight loss - do something that's going to change your life for real!
• That in the next abhorrent interaction with the NFOO, assuming it's unavoidable, you get to objectively 'see' what they're up to, what they're doing. It's an amazing experience to be outside of the pathology, able to just observe and not get dragged into it. It's incredible how routine it is, how predictable! And at one time, it was so powerful over you! Such a bizarre experience - I hope you have a similar one. It feels good to 'get' what's going on, and to be able to effortlessly side-step their many, many snares.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and encouragement they've given me! You have all helped so much! Probably more than I'll ever know! Knowing I wasn't crazy, that I wasn't alone in having AWFUL parents with horrible personalities, really did 'save my life'. I can only imagine the consequences of another few years of believing that there was something inherently wrong with me, and not my diseased parents! Thanks for being here for me and for each other. The ACoN community, for all its ups and downs, really does more good than not.

Next up - the ACoN Society Survey results!

A Very Merry Christmas, Friends!

by Quercus

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

As the holidays launch, I wish each and every ACoN.....

PEACE

LOVE

RELAXATION

But I know that for many of us who are not fortunate enough to be spending Christmas and New Year's with our Families of Choice (and who are, instead, still feeling obligated to meet the demands of the FOO, or are still trying to find a way to keep the FOO at bay), each of these wishes will be hard to come by!

If you can't find Peace, Love and Relaxation this time of year (like me!), then I wish you the following:

ENDURANCE

DISTRACTION

AMPLE SUPPLY OF APPROPRIATE COPING MECHANISM*

(*rum and eggnog is my go-to seasonal palliative)

I've been away from the blog for two weeks, unintentionally, just due to the pre-holiday chaos. I can't imagine it'll get any easier, so I really will remember all of you in my prayers and send you warm thoughts in the meanwhile (especially as I get towards the bottom of the glass of coping-mechanism - I'll be toasting you all like crazy as NM makes more comments about my weight and the eggnog not helping anything!).

Please remember to take the ACoN Society Survey, if you haven't yet! The survey runs until New Year's Eve, so get to it before 2013!


Short update on the life of QG:

I have managed to survive several obligatory holiday social events that I could not excuse myself from, and I fared rather well! The narc ex-friend actually kept her distance (though it should be said I was very careful to avoid her - I even scheduled bathroom breaks so that I couldn't be cornered!), and so all in all it worked out alright in the end. Just. I'm thankful to God - I'm sure Providence had a hand in that!

The FOO is up its usual tricks, with one notable exception: with the absence of me as full-time scapegoat, they've roped in another for the holidays (MUCH scapegoating required this time of year! They needed to spread out the load!). So a poor relative of mine, who is very good and kind and patient, is getting bullied now, too. It's fascinating/horrifying/nauseating to see it happen, but I'm learning so much about the RIGIDITY of their narc-minds! They really can't/won't give up on their little pathological games for even an instant! Not a moment can go by without someone in the 'scapegoat' position.

My long-time friend who had a recent crisis, who I have since accepted is also 'narcissistically defended', has had a full break-down and is probably at what can be considered 'rock-bottom'. It's horrible to see, but maybe it's what needs to happen. She can finally see that her family isn't just unwilling to help her, but that they are also the problem. Whether or not it sticks remains to be seen. I'm happy to report she's seeing a therapist. I hope she comes in our direction. But that's a very big decision, as you and I know....

But that's it for me! More sleep deprivation, travel, wrapping, packing, stressing to go, then full on "survival mode" (I'll take notes in case anything amusing happens!), and then the denouement of the post-Christmas, pre-NYE week. I'm sure I'll have LOTS to say then!

Merry Christmas once again to everyone! Remember the reason for the season - it's rooted in HOPE. Salvation. A new beginning. It's in practicality a stressful, busy, materialistic season. But it was meant to be so much more - HOPE in the darkest days.

Hang in there, one and all. We'll chat again in 2013 (or before, depending on how terribly Christmas went!).

- QG :-)

Featured: Doug's Blog - RumblestripQ

by Doug/q1605

For me, the Acon blog community was a refuge of last resort. My mother displays every cluster-B trait known to man. She has all the qualities of a dog except for loyalty. She is so far into the range of sociopathy that no one would challenge me on this. I don't need for her to be diagnosed by a professional. And the State of Texas would be the first to agree.

Her pressure cooker of dysfunction boiled over so ruinously that I was forced to look out side my bubble of denial for answers. When I did, I found this community of like minded people.

At first I was content with forums and contributing to the blogs of others. But inevitably someone would say something to somebody about something else and things would go to places that made no one happy.

Much like growing up.

I had enough of this at home. Chaos for the sake of chaos, and no resolution in sight.

So I decide to create my own space.  People could agree. People could disagree. And as much as I despise a mod tight site, the option to censure is my own.

It will never cease to amaze me the humanity I find among the brow beaten. When our oppressors cite their own abuse as an excuse to palm abuse on others.

It's is a testament to the durability of the human spirit. It is a testament to the hope that the better ones among  us can band together to be the light that outshines their darkness. 

The numbers are on our side. We just have to get the word out and give people a voice.

Personality disordered people are all over. But so are we.

Visit Doug's blog:

"RumblestripQ: Back Stage Pass to the Sociopath Side Show"

Est. August 2011

Featured: Gracie's Blog - Confessions from the Fog

by Gracie Carroll 

Confessions from the Fog screenshot

A little about me/my blog: 

I am married to a scapegoat ACoN, living with hellish in-laws with control issues and verbal abusive natures up to a year ago. It has been nearly one full year since we have gone no contact with my husband's family and we have never been happier as a couple.

I wanted to create the blog after reading yours and Jonsi's stories as well as reading information on Luke 17:3 ministries site from Sister Renee. After being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder stemming from the abuse I received during our time in contact with these people, I have been through a long, rough road to finding myself again and finding purpose once more after being torn down to nothing. I'm certainly not perfect but have come a long way since first being exposed to N's! My heart is to help those women and people in my shoes, married to those with an N-family causing havoc on their marriage. I have a heart for listening to others, assuring them they are NOT crazy and hoping my words bring some bit of comfort into the crazy mess that is living with N's. I write things I wish someone would have written to me when I was starting out the journey! I want to empower those people and let them know they do not have to live in abuse. 

I think my blog is probably best suited to those starting out or simply those who need an encouraging voice. I'm here to love the people broken and sad enough to even type into the search bar 'abusive in laws' or 'toxic family'. It really does break my heart so many people search for words of comfort and only find things that tell them to live with it and deal with the abuse. (so sad!) I hope to reach people who have gotten terrible advice from family, friends and even pastors (like I have!) to just 'deal with it'. It's something close to my heart and I hope to reach out to people hurting just like I was (still am, at times).

Visit Gracie's Blog, "Confessions from the Fog", started December 2012.

I'm an ACoN-Nerd! Your Data, Please!

by Quercus

I realised that as soon as I got excited about doing a post containing Venn diagrams, that my secret was out - I'm a huge nerd.

ADD YOUR BLOG TO THE VENN DIAGRAM DIRECTORY!

Where would your blog title fit on this? Please let me know - I'd like to fill it all in and post it, so that readers can find the blogs that best fit with them!

I think it would be best if the author self-categorize - I had a shot at it, but realised pretty quickly that it was difficult to sort the blogs of others!

Update: by special request (the lovely Jessie)

I've got a new chart in the works. I've taken the liberty of adding Jonsi and Gracie to it, because they are our two non-ACoN bloggers and deserve recognition!

REMINDER: TAKE THE ACoN SOCIETY SURVEY! ENDS 31 DEC 2012!

For those of you who may have missed the earlier post, here's a reminder about the survey. Follow this link here to the post explaining everything and which has a link to the SurveyMonkey Anonymized Survey.

In a nutshell, it's anonymous, and it's to see (hopefully statistically! I told you - HUGE NERD!) what background and experiences we all break down into. No questions are mandatory, and anonymity is assured (see the link for the full how-what-why). Thank you for adding your data!

Featured Blog: YOUR BLOG HERE

by Quercus


THE NEBULUS QUALITY OF THE ACoN BLOGOSPHERE:

When I first started this blog, I really didn't intend for this to be a personal blog as such. And in all honesty, one of the biggest reasons for this was that I didn't want my NFOO to find me! I wanted to remain anonymous, to just be who I am but under a pseudonym, and help others to find a central hub that linked all the excellent ACoN blogs together. (It had taken me so long to find the blogs I currently follow!).


BURN OUT & THE ACoN BLOGGER:

I've also noticed that ACoN blogs have a finite life-span. Some of the blogs I first read were pretty well defunct by the time I came around to them (for example, "Narcissists Suck" - Anna Valerious still moderates comments and posts maybe once a year, maybe, but I definitely found it after its hey-day). While I still refer back to her blog (it really is one of my all-time favourites) as it continues to be a useful and thought-provoking resource for me, it's also really nice to read the still-active journeys of other ACoNs. And I find that the newer, fresher blogs are always the hardest to find!

It seems to me, as someone who is still 'in the woods' of her ACoN journey, that the average life-span of an ACoN blog is only a few short years. Then it gets retired - the ACoN has moved on, resolved their issues, and has other battles to fight and victories to celebrate in their lives! I really wanted to start the sort of blog or site that could be passed on to someone else, or at least one that I could continue to support but have other, newer writers give it life when my burn-out point is reached. The reason for this is simple - I know what it felt like to be alone in cyberspace, trying to find a 'community' of people with problems like mine to interact with! It was very lonely for me at first, and I always had this sense that I was two years behind (or more!) on all the blogs I commented on. I felt that I had missed the boat, and I don't want any other ACoN in that fragile "first-step" phase to feel the way I did.


'WHAT NARC?' WE COULD DO THIS MAGAZINE-STYLE:

I also thought I'd have various other authors and bloggers contributing articles, so we could essentially run a little 'magazine' of sorts that highlighted the brave contributions of the sort of people who really put themselves out there to share, and to refer back to their personal blogs (if desired) so that all the ACoNs out there looking for answers/understanding could read more from the ACoNs who most interested them.

But it turns out that my idea didn't work all that well: comment forms seem to be sufficient for people to "have their say"; forums exist for anonymous posting as well; the sort of people who want to say more generally have their own blogs anyway and don't have time to do extra posts; and I'm the only contributing author on The ACoN Society to date (apart from Ruth and Sister Renee Pittelli who wrote a tonne for "FAQ", which I am very grateful for!). I'm really not a 'business-minded' person, as you can tell - my idea was half-baked at best! Good thing this is all free!

I do, however, want to try to come back to my original premise a bit and use this blog as I intended it to be in the first place - a launch pad!

I am formally inviting any blogger who follows/occasionally looks at my blog to 'pitch' their own blog here!

I have a link of recommended blogs on the right of my page (PLEASE let me know if you'd like yours added! Would be happy to oblige!), but it's not very visible, and every blog typically has a links list....

Instead, I was thinking it would be cool to have a "Featured Blog" post now and then, showing a screenshot of the blog and a blurb from the author as to what their blog is about, where/when it started, where it's going, and maybe a general synopsis of the author. For example, Quercus is a ACoN of an NM and (N)EF who is currently waffling on the LOW/NO CONTACT threshold, is over a year into therapy, and is married and in her thirties. Now if you were an only child of an elderly NF who lives with him still and is also his caretaker, we not might have much in common.

What I'd like to do is help facilitate ACoNs to find the blogs most relevant or useful to them! It took me forever to find my favourites (which are typically those whose stories are like mine, but not always! Sometimes a different perspective is also really helpful and educational for me!), and I wished that there had been a central site that really linked all the blogs together so that people could quickly find what they needed!

So it's still my hope that I can 'give back' to the community that has helped me so much by connecting ACoNs with the blogs of other ACoNs.

My readership is low compared to many of your blogs, so I'm not really powered to unite the whole of the ACoN world by any means! But if you see the potential here in what I'd like to do, please help me to do it!

If you would like to submit a "Here's My Blog - Here's What I Write About - Please Come Read!" article, I would happily post it and a link (and a permalink if I don't already have one in the link list). And if you'd like to post on your blog, "Hey, I just featured my blog on The ACoN Society" and linked back here, maybe your readers could find other blogs as well and we can get everyone connected to helpful resources and kindred ACoN spirits!

Alternatively, I can 'play journalist' and do a 'review' of your blog myself, along those same lines (obviously running it past you for approval prior to posting). 

If you're interested, please drop me a line! I can't say that your article will bring in x number of viewers (again, my readership might even be smaller than yours!), but I'd love to help people find the blogs that might resonate with them best. It took me a frustratingly long time to find blogs that really spoke to me and my situation, and I would love to shorten that interval for others.

If there's a blog that I haven't listed that you read and think that other ACoNs should be made aware of, please let me know (comment/email)! I can contact the author and see if they'd be interested in a link to their blog on The ACoN Society.


UPDATE - I've done a mock "Featured Blog" example on the "Submissions to The ACoN Society" page (at top right of page). If you scroll down the "Submissions" page, you'll see a blurb I did about this blog. That's sort of the idea/content I was envisioning, but have at 'er if you've got a different vision for what a "Featured Blog" post for your blog should be!