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Wow what a tarbaby situation. As in, you touch the tarbaby, just trying to help out, and then you can't get it off of you. Sometimes people like this purposefully go to places like churches, because they know there's a volume of caring people there who they can take advantage of. It can be hard...

I have just a couple of observations, which probably are not helpful, but who knows. 1) Back when I was working and going to therapy, I kept getting told in therapy that work environments mimic family environments and that's why they can be hard for people with PTSD. I guess that depends on...

Oh man, absolutely! Here is the simplest comparison between people who don't like (even actively dislike) animals and sociopaths. People who don't like animals but are okay emotionally don't go out of their way to kill animals. I'm not talking about something like hunting or accidentally hitting...

Yeah, no, I was not telling you off. Your story is important and you should keep talking. I kind of feel that many therapists (mine included) like to take a "you couldn't have done anything else" approach to the past, which I dislike. I think it's good to admit that you messed up. Things were...

@She Cat The state that my sister is living in has some pretty broad definitions of what is child abuse. I just reread them and I don't think anything that is going on applies. For example, the age of consent there is 16, and adults can "paddle" a child with a stick. I don't know why my sister...

My only child is 3. My mom was inappropriate with all her kids and my older brothers (her step kids), but mostly she neglected us and was just a crazy pothead weirdo. She took us out of school when we were kids so we couldn't tell on her. I am the only one who escaped. The others are dead, still...

I don't necessarily believe that people with PTSD are sick or need to get over it, even though I recognize that I have PTSD and I can admit that interferes with my ability to function in many normal life activities. That gets in the way with my ability to move forward in therapy, which is why I...

@Tornadic Thoughts Huh. Interesting. Yes I had assumed that the absence of holiday recognition and not asking about me was from thoughtlessness, but I had not considered that her lifestyle would keep her busy. I guess it would. It would be like working an 80 hour week, wouldn't it? Yes I am...

I'm really struggling with letting a relationship with my sister go. We did not grow up together and have different mothers. Both of our mothers are worthless old whores, who did everything they could to sabotage their offspring. It's really surprising any of their children function at all. I...

Thumbs up. Great post.

I see that there is some discussion in the news about "merit-based" versus "chain" migration of refugees. For a few years, I volunteer taught English to refugees (and one illegal immigrant) from South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Mexico. I'm located in a Southern region of the US, in a...

I don't have social media, except to sometimes post on anonymous sites like this, I guess. It has been interesting to read what other people have said here. Many years ago, back when I still had friends, my former group of friends and I were at our usual bar. It was a couple of us hetero girls...

Let New Guy do it! Dudes have a way of relating to each other and relaxing when we're not around.

I have PTSD myself, plus a physical disability. But I have a masters degree in sociology with a concentration in a rare field called the sociology of autism. I studied autistic adults. I'm also married to an autistic person, who I've known since I was a teenager, way before he was diagnosed. My...

Lots of people don't have animals. Most people who don't like animals pretend to like them. When I was a young person I seriously did not like children. Probably from having an autistic little brother when I was an impatient teenager. I had to pretend to like babies and kids for years, and...

It could be that there are people around who you would not necessarily think of as friends, but are. I had to get rid of my friends (or they got rid of me) when I stopped going out to bars after becoming a mom. The rest of my friends disappeared when I started being a little more honest about my...

@Blue Survivor Have there been any updates? Has your current guy tried to talk to your brother or vice versa? I was also thinking that an even worse situation could happen if your current boyfriend DID make friends with your brother. What if ALL THREE of them became friends and started hanging...

I am a 40 year old parent of a 3 year old. My 39 year old sister has an 18 year old, an 11 year old, and an 8 year old. My sister and I are half-sisters. We were raised separately by self-absorbed mothers and our dad died when I was a baby and my sister was a fetus. My sister is pretty...

Your brother is just plain wrong in this. He's got a bromance with your ex- good for him. What does that have to do with you? Yeah I would let your new guy call your brother and offer to hang out with him. Maybe if he gets to know the new guy and that he is nice, he will realize that he's wrong...

I would define nationalism as being a love for, pride in, and respect for one's own nation. Years ago I was taking a German language class and the professor told us that in Germany, people do not sing the German national anthem, or talk about German pride, or anything like that. Certainly not in...

Refugees: About half the male Muslim refugees were animals and the other half were completely cool. I believe the difference between the two was education. The one who spoke multiple languages and had more varied experience were okay with women's rights and were able to adapt to our culture. The...

When I text ask someone a direct question and they never answer. It's always something I need to know, like they're inviting themselves to my house and I'm like, "When are you coming this way?" Or they've been telling me something is wrong with them and then I directly ask if they are okay.

Kind of a difficult thing to accomplish if you're serious. I remember back in 2000 I was working somewhere that was about to go to electronic medical records. I had just gotten my first computer science degree. It was just an associate's and this was 2000, but I already realized how this...

So I've been approached several times in the past couple weeks by people insisting on talking about politics with me. Three out of four of those times were with people who know me and know that I voted for President Trump. The last person was a stranger who I believe thought I "looked...

In case anyone was interested, we ended up pulling our 3 1/2 year old son out of the second preschool. Long story short, he had a fit there for what I felt were rational reasons. The teacher first mishandled the fit, then waited until I picked him up hours later to tell me about it, then gave...