NaBloPoMo November 2016

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

So tired of it all.

Kick it up a notch

My Other has doubled his efforts online, it seems. It's hard to not respond when he is posting echoes of my past words as his own. Also, when it reads like I was the one not giving any effort or even being the abusive one. 
Oh, and he has texted me directly a few times.

I would rather totally disconnect, but he has items that cannot be replaced of mine in storage at his grandmother's house. So I will not engage, but I feel I have to be polite.

It's stressful.

I don't want to lose contact with my family and friends, but I am having trouble dealing with seeing his comments and memes which seem to be passive-aggressively directed at me. Provoking. I want to just block him, but I don't want to piss him off. 

He has posted a few things about being single, and then a meme saying how hard it is when the person you cared about has moved on but you are still processing the breakup. Not sure who he thinks he is talking about, Sure isn't about me. I have zero plans of dating anyone. Maybe ever again. Not even casually. Hell, I don't even have any friends to hang out with. Whatever.

There is so much cognitive dissonance and so many logical fallacies in his narrative I would need to write a 500 page dissertation to cover it all, and I haven't even been gone a month yet.

Still stuck

I had to resend for my paperwork I need because I didn't include an enlarged photocopy of my current ID. So it will be another week or so before I can do anything.

I need space and time to myself. I have been doing that by staying up later to be alone. The downside of that is not getting enough rest, which makes everything harder. And me bitchier in general because of it. But, better grumpy than insane.

My therapy pet, Missybaby, isn't doing well at all. She is old, and has been having issues for months and has an appointment with the vet next week, but... She has been vomiting today. I am concerned.

Now the good news

My daughter got engaged! 
My son moved out of the Other's home!
One of my paintings has been requested for a silent auction fundraiser!

All good things that help balance it out a bit.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

From Isolation to Exile

Choices

I had been cut-off and silenced. 
It wasn't sudden, mind you. 
It took place over a period of years. 

The end result was that I was alone when the reality of my situation slammed into my face. 
I was suffering from mental, emotional and financial abuse. At the end, I was being deprived of food and sleep and dealing with sexual coercion on top of the rest of it.

This is hard to admit. It makes me feel weak and powerless and stupid to say that I allowed myself to be in that situation. And even when my eyes had been opened to the fact that it was abusive behaviors, and intellectually I understood it and knew it as a truth, I didn't accept it. I fought against it. I tried to find a way to fix it. I tried to make sense of it. 

I stayed.

I sought help, and worked on my issues... got us help and worked on our relationship. But one person cannot work on a relationship alone.

It took an emergency surgery, being abandoned at the hospital, and then severe neglect during my recuperation to make me see that my life had no meaning or worth to my significant other. It was then that I truly understood I would die, one way or another, if I didn't leave.

It was time to go.

I jumped through hoops trying to get things set up, but I couldn't as long as I was still in the house.
I couldn't apply for housing. I couldn't stay in a shelter (I have a therapy pet). I had no one nearby I could stay with. 

I had to leave it all behind. Some friends I could have tried to reconnect with, my adult children, my therapist and support worker... all of them.

So I exiled myself here. My only link to them all is digital. I have never felt so alone or such a failure.

This situation isn't perfect either, but it is safer than I was and it is only temporary.

I joined a skills training/support group for DV survivors. I sent for paperwork I need to begin to apply for various assistance. I got a referral lined up for my therapy and med management needs. I applied for a very limited hours part time job that I think I can handle.

And I am trying to be kind to myself.



Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Mind Games

It doesn't end when you leave

I have been holding to the recommended no-contact with my husband. There isn't anything directly coming from him. But he is still playing the games. He is posting things to facebook that should be coming from me. Things a survivor of abuse would say. I have remained silent. He has been commenting on my families pages as well.

There is so much I want to say publicly. Everything he has thrown out there, I want to comment on. So I will do it here. From his facebook timeline in the order they appeared:


Uh, Okay. I already did.



If you had made any, I would have. In fact I even thanked you for the one thing you stopped doing and then praised you for the change to your therapist. You promptly started doing it again and even tried to convince me I was wrong for feeling offended because someone else thought your jokes were funny. However, I do not see why you think I would respect you for all the dumb things in your past... I don't think you meant to say that...


True. Which is why I was careful who I vented to, and the wording I used... or is this meant as a warning???


So you are saying I shouldn't have given you a place in my heart? Or are you trying to say I should have stayed and endured all the abuse?

That's the only reason I stayed as long as I did. I tried to keep loving you even when I was getting nothing in return that could be construed as love. For years.


So you are saying that you agree with my decision to leave then?
Ah. Yes. I didn't praise you enough for the little things you did for me, right? Even when you made dinner and it was food you knew I didn't like and ended up not being able to eat? Or when you would do everyone else's laundry in the house but mine using up all the quarters? Or when you would "let me sleep in" and miss an appointment? I could go on...


Are you giving me permission? Or trying to twist it around for yourself to garner sympathy?


So I should feel sorry for you?


Exactly how I have described it to you. Nice that you seem to get it finally. Oh wait. You are talking about yourself? Does this mean you are going to actually start working on your issues now? Go to your appointments and participate in therapy? How about actually getting tested and finding out what your problems are? that would be a place to start...


So, you are saying you didn't love me?


Kind of. Love is about mutual respect and making someone else a priority in your life. Showing you care and being there for them and supporting them. Not playing the martyr and then looking for pity and blaming the person you "love" for how miserable you have made yourself. But I really hope you do want me to be happy. I still want that for you.

Actually, if someone really loves you, they will do everything in their power to make you want to stay no matter how difficult the situation is.



I feel a bit better. Like I set the record straight.

Though no one really knows about this blog who knows me.

There was more. He has been flooding facebook with posts. Tons of stuff about dating and what he wants in a partner as well. I worry about whoever he gets next. He would only go on FB every few months until our last couple's session. Then he was always on and always reading over my shoulder. Some of the others I saw seem to have been removed from his page so that responding to it will make me look nuts. I had already shown them to others, though, so I have witnesses that they were real.

I don't know how to handle this. He still has a lot of my stuff, and my adult son is living with him temporarily. I don't want my kids to become targets for me. I need to get therapy started here and get some guidance. 


I know he is still gaslighting.

Read that link if you don't know about that mental abuse technique.
For now I guess I stay quiet or vague publicly. And don't respond to his bait.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Reasons

Why ask "why?"

I was stuck going 'round and 'round in my head trying to decipher why my husband was acting the way he was. Why was he treating me the way he did? Was any of it my fault? What was I responsible for and what did I need to do about it?

It could have been that part of the neglect was coming from his depression. Since I suffer from Major Depression, I felt I should support him and be more empathic.

It could have been that the with holding of information was memory issues and not intentional. Either as side effects of his medications, his brain surgery, or possibly due to lack of oxygen to his brain from his partially collapsed lung and the fact he refused to even cut down on his smoking. I felt I should encourage him to get checked out by his doctors.

It could have been that his refusal to enforce any sort of consequences on his children's behavior was tied with his possible Superman Complex, and a need to always be "the good guy". I felt I should support him and push for counseling for himself, his kids, and family counseling sessions as well.

I could go on. The relationship issues were varied and complex.

I did come to realize that my complacency and acceptance of the treatment I received directed what was allowed acceptable behavior. That was my responsibility. 

Asking "why?" was important in sorting out how to approach making changes. Seeking proper treatment for the symptoms requires you figure out the origin, at least in general.

But I got stuck there when I had done all I could do myself and was waiting for him to join me in seeking a healthy relationship. And he didn't.

There comes a time when the "why" stops meaning anything. It doesn't matter anymore if there are no changes being made. No effort. I waited 2 years from the time I demanded he get his kids and himself and us in therapy. I know that change is slow, so my expectations were not linked to a timeline, but things actually deteriorated instead of improving. 

In the end, I had to leave because I came to realize that one way or another, staying would kill me.
"Why?" matters not if I cease to exist.