My Thoughts
My sincere thanks for your support as I continue sharing in the hopes that others will benefit from my experiences and insights.
[Covered: Accepting Truth; Finding Humor; In the Beginning; Anatomy of a Hoarder; Disassociating; The Why of It; Grieving; Aspects of Addictive Families; Borderline Personality Disorder; Narcissism; Mother’s Backstory; Living in Borderland; Crazymaking; Siblings; Birth Order; Treatment of Family Members; Running Interference; Religiosity; Spiritual Journey; Living Backwards; End of Life Planning; Sorrow and Hope; Eulogy; Epilogue]
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living in borderland
I am working on a comprehensive expose of understanding and living with my Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Mother. The multipart series is coming soon. I thank you for your patience and support. And, I have to tell you, reviewing and re-living my experiences to share with you, while emotionally provoking and bringing grief to work Read more
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mother’s backstory
As I watched Mother suffer multiple hospitalizations due to congestive heart failure, pulmonary fibrosis and stenosis, resulting in stroke-like brain injuries, she shared details of her life which I had never known before. Growing up during the depression, Mother’s childhood was one of depravity in multiple ways. Her family was very poor, her father being Read more
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clinical aspects of addictive families
[This is for those interested in the psychological underpinnings of families living with addiction; focusing on abusive relationships, and on etiology and treatments, drawing on my personal and professional experiences as a family therapist, along with current research.] “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”(Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy) Read more
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addictive family effects
Mother was terrified of alcoholism and regularly regaled us with its evils. We often heard about her friends who became alcoholics after cooking with wine. What is more plausible is the story of her father, after WWI, in a drunken stupor, almost died, saw hell, quickly reformed and became a “hell fire and brimstone” circuit Read more
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the why of it
In the midst of caring for Mother, her negative verbalizations and erratic behavior were so intense, I did not have time to process. I just felt it was my duty as a daughter. I am compassionate, and a soft heart can leave a person vulnerable to abuse. After I was free, I began questioning: “Why Read more
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[sidebar]
When I started this site, I just wrote about memories as they came to me, in no specific organization or chronological order. I will say, dredging up memories while cathartic, is emotional at times. My plan is to continue writing memories, connecting information and deeper insights that help explain what I lived through, in the Read more
5 golden years 