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The journey begins ... or continues ... articulating the rollercoaster that is my life

Hoping things come together for you Mums.... you are ready for this new stage to begin and to be successful... and really hope you get to a safer place sooner rather than later. It does make a difference if we feel safe... sending good energy for things to fall into place.
 
So I had 2 phone counselling sessions today. I feel kinda cared about with that.
One was set up, my trauma counsellor texted me yesterday asking if we could do our session by phone today. Her son is home sick.
It took me a year to get her, I had to apply at the neighborhood centre and wait, but it doesn't cost me. I feel so lucky.

She told me I need to slow down, let myself grieve, curl up in bed and cry. I did cry while I was talking to her but I don't want to get too immersed in feeling so much.

She said I intellectualize a lot but really I'm a heart person, a feeling kind of person.

That's part of the problem.

Suicide is devastating.
Partner abuse and betrayal is devastating.
One's children being complicit and manipulated to abuse and be abused by that very same abusive co-parent is devastating, ok we are getting over this, but it's still a process.

I don't feel comforted by the fact that people who experience long-term narcissistic abuse don't get the same validation, it's so hard to describe how it destroys you from the inside.

I can't even mention it to my children, he's still got them tied in knots, reliant on him, they are breaking free though.

My 19 year old son, who incidentally , is so tied, so disempowered, so dependant on his Dad, he hasn't told his Dad or any of his brothers about his "non-normative" sexuality or gender-bending or whatever you want to call it, only me and his sisters. He clearly doesn't feel safe or comfortable sharing who he really is, with his father. No real surprises there.

I want him with me so bad, he's my sensitive , pushing-the-boundaries-of-convention, gentle, young adult, non-binary son.

The neglect I've been forced into, with my kids, because of their Dad's selfish, narcy, spitefully, vengeful, destruction parental alienation, breaks my heart into tiny pieces.

Agency was denied me, due to abuse, the one thing I lived for, to protect and care for my children, was taken away from me, for years, because he knew that I cared about them more than anything.

It was how he got me to stay for so long.

"You're crazy" he would say "if you leave me, you'll never get the children, because you're crazy"...
...I believed him for so long, it was only when I knew my body wasn't going hold up for much longer and I made a friend, a friend who actually cared about me! For the first time someone really cared about me!

I was faced with a choice, stay and keep dying or leave, leave my babies!!!!! What a shit choice!

I did manage to take him to court and win custody of my 2 under 12's, the babies of my babies ( the other 5 are now young adults and over the worst of the father abuse and the witnessing and participating in the mother abuse) but I had the worst lawyer. A lecherous lazy, self-only-interested arsehole, who didn't care about the extreme narc that my ex is, and wouldn't do the job to help me get my bigger kids back.

Here, the family court aren't interested in placing teenagers with the safer, more responsible parent, they don't help or talk or represent them or the distressed parent who's worried about them.

Incidentally that lawyer scoped me out for sex, coming around on a weekend, to my house, without even ringing first. I know this because my bestie, the one who just lost her man, was seduced by him, when she went to him for legal help in her own parental ailienation shituation.

She ended up losing all contact with her son and got f*cked by that prick for years. She is a lot more vulnerable than me. She got misdiagnosed and was bullied by the family court (instigated by her narcy ex) to take psych drugs that made her so much more mentally ill than she was before that. She had to comply or have no contact with her son, but the drugs made her so much sicker and more mentally ill!
Now she has to deal with the pain of losing her best (guy) friend and her only child.

I hope her boy comes back to her, one day.

Mine are, it's the most healing thing of all.
 
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So I ended up breaking down while talking to my youngest son. My twelvey. He is in some trouble at school and was complaining that he didn't know exactly what and with who, he's in trouble with. He's now on a "blue book", which means he's being closely monitored and has to get each teacher, each day, for ten days, to sign off, in his said book-of-the-colour, for a number of behavioural tick-offs.

We tried to sit down with him, yesterday, and reason things out with him, but he just got argumentative and wouldn't listen, got annoyed and terminated the conversation.

I brought the issue up tonight and kindly, honestly asked him to come talk to me. First of all he didn't want, then when I respected his wish to "not yet", and praised him for being assertive, direct and honest with me, he came down and we were able to talk.

Turns out he was annoyed with me last night for "overexplaining things".
I again affirmed that communication is the key, that he can say that he gets it, in future, or reflect back to me, so I get that he gets it.

I also cried and told him I was really struggling but that I'd been trying to hold off on feeling the grief over my friend so I could be available and care for my family.

I exposed myself to him and he just got kind of overwhelmed and dissociated from his feelings. I also validated that and said "that's a very common and normal thing to do in the face of feeling overwhelmed, it's a coping mechanism". We talked about feelings and how denying them doesn't make them go away, it just saves them up to be felt later and that they can just come upon us in a less controllable way, when we don't face them, voice them and name them.

He said "yeah, that's what happens to me".

I also gave him the heads up about pursuing the youth counselling service we've already approached, but haven't yet organized an appointment with.

So yeah, cried, in front of my kid. Told him I was grieving the loss of my friend. That I hadn't wanted to tell him, at all, about how Pete died, because I never want him to think it's an option. But s/i has been a common theme in our family already, amongst most of us,(me and my children) so it's not like we haven't all struggled and pulled away from the idea.
 
I kind of hate myself for not being able to describe trauma stuff so well on here.
My brain just won't let me go there.
I stopped the timeline stuff at about 5 and since then it's a lot of vague "talking around" stuff.
I think I'm very sensitive. Maybe a bit Aspie?
My Dad is very Aspie and my mum always commented on how like him I am. I got the impression she had no respect for him and didn't like him. She was pretty derisive and scornful of him in general and they separated when I was 2.5. She cheated on him with a man who suffered from schizophrenia.
 
y'know -- sometimes I read what you write and I'm just dumbfounded by all you have been through and yet you are still such a kind, loving person who worries so much about others. I think others who had to deal with all you have would have just shut down and not cared about anything.

I love that you opened up and cried in front of your son because now he will know that's ok. I'm guessing dad would never let him feel a feeling, so having one parent who accepts him if he does must be huge for him.

And you don't need to describe stuff if you don't want to. I don't need gory details to support you. But if you want to share it's not going to scare me off either. I won't think any less of you, or any differently (ok, well maybe a bit more in awe but....)
 
Mine are, it's the most healing thing of all.
It's because you're kind and loving :)

I love that you opened up and cried in front of your son because now he will know that's ok.
This is true. My mom always tried to hold back tears -- now I can remember every instance and when she does nowadays, I want to flee. It would be so much better if we were taught, like your baby, that crying is healthy!

And you don't need to describe stuff if you don't want to.
I ditto this statement. And also that you're amazingly strong.

f*ck that lawyer, not literally though -- he sounds like the literal worst kind of person. I'm sorry you ended up near him at all, let alone on a critically important one like this
 

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