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Isolation and Dark Times

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Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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  • #128567
    Jasmine Bradford
    Participant

    Hey guys,
    I am going through such a dark period of my life and I don’t know how much longer I can live if my life continues this way. Just a little backstory, I grew up in a very dysfunctional home with a narcissistic father and a very enabling codependent mother. They would break up and get back together and then break up and get with other people. I moved around a lot as a kid and was very confused on what was going on. My dad was very loving to me one minute and then saying vicious remarks like you are lazy or ugly or worse beat up me and my brother. All the while, my mom would just let it happen. Eventually, my mom stopped getting back together with my dad but by that point I was already 15 years old and a lot of the emotional damage had been done and no one in my family checked to see if I was okay. I didn’t really enjoy high school that much and had very few friends due to bullying and towards the end of my senior year I had none and every single day was a struggle. I told myself my senior year that once I went to college everything would change and that I would never be lonely again and would have an amazing life. Well, I moved from my home in NC and chose to go to a huge school called University of Wisconsin-Madison and for a while I was right. I had an amazing group of friends and would get black out drunk every weekend that way I didn’t have to feel my feelings of deep sadness and anger I had towards my dad and mom. But by my sophomore year everything ended up falling apart. For some reason, I started lashing out at my friends for silly reasons and was so judgmental and critical of everyone and everything. I thought that I had just chose the wrong school and maybe I should transfer. So I decided to take a semester off and move back in with my mom who now lived in Texas. While I was deciding what schools to go to, I had this epiphany that it was my turning from Christianity that caused all this and if I rededicated my life to God and went to a Christian school my life would be back on track. Flash forward 6 months later and I started attending Baylor University, a small private school in Waco, Texas. I had the same mentality going to Baylor as I did UW-Madison, I thought that this was the solution and it would solve all my problems. Well, I started going to this church that many people say is similar to a cult because it promises so many college students a loving community in exchange for your individuality. I also joined a sorority. Once again, everything was great for awhile and then betrayals and disappointments came from both my church and sorority. I started questioning everything that I knew and everything that I am. Eventually it got so bad, I dropped my church and declared myself no longer a Christian and shortly thereafter I dropped my sorority as well. I started getting into spirituality and meditation and learning new things. I started to feel more in alignment with who I truly was. The problem is I am so alone and isolated and it has been that way for awhile. All of my so called church friends dropped me like a hot potato the minute I left the church and the same goes for the sorority. I am a senior now graduating in May but I don’t know if I can do this anymore. Every single weekend I spend all isolated in my apartment with my dog. I have tried applying for jobs and have either been rejected or don’t hear anything back. I am starting to go crazy at this point with my lack of social interaction. My birthday is next week and I already know I am going to spend it alone with nothing to do or no one to hang out with. Can someone please help me identify the root of my loneliness and give me solutions to fix it? By the way, sorry this is so lengthy

    #128579
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear jbradford2012:

    My answer:

    The root of your loneliness- having been painfully betrayed by your mother and your father as a child, day after day, year after year. The two people you needed to love you so desperately, gave you so little and then took it away and more by neglect and abuse.

    No pain greater than the pain of an innocent child, all loving, all trusting, all open, vulnerable when betrayed.

    “Solutions to fix it”- competent psychotherapy. Stay away from solutions that didn’t solve anything, stay away from more of the same. Don’t rush to not be lonely on your birthday any which way. The healing way is long. Brace yourself for a few years of hard work. The good news in five years you can find yourself in a place in life you can’t imagine now to be possible.

    Please do post more.

    anita

    #128779
    Jasmine Bradford
    Participant

    Thank you so much for your love and wisdom anita. It has truly helped me on my journey to healing. (:

    #128791
    Anonymous
    Guest

    You are very welcome, jbradford2012. Wishing you the best o your healing journey. Post again, anytime.
    anita

    #129461
    Inky
    Participant

    Hi jbradford2012,

    Spring semester of Senior Year is a little sad for everyone/anyone. Even if you were still entrenched in the cult-y church and all the sorority sisters were your best friends, you might still feel introspective and down. Because guess what ~ next year EVERYONE will be spending their birthdays alone in their apartment with their dog (even metaphorically speaking). And everyone will have a new beginning.

    You will find a job (or create one) and move away from your mother for good. Whether she was a co-dependent mess or the best parent in the world, you will still be in this phase of life!

    And when you get out there, I’ve found that the old cliché is true: The best way to find a friend is to be one. Every adult would love new friends. Not necessarily best friends. But true ones. Even if they’re all snobby and turn you down, it’s always nice to be asked to get together for coffee or invited to wherever.

    And yes, get a good psychotherapist. Because I want you to have someone who you can talk to about everything and anything. You deserve that!!

    Best,

    Inky

    #129467
    Painterly
    Participant

    Hello,

    When you were a child, the people you most depended on let you down repeatedly. For you, that is life’s pattern, so when things are going well, at a new school/church/neighbourhood, subconsciously you are waiting for signs of it all crumbling. The first sign of disappointment inflates into what looks like an incipient crisis so you throw in the towel, before anyone else gets the chance to hurt you again.

    These are very deep rooted issues. Another new school/job/neighbourhood won’t change this. Only working on yourself will – that generally means psychotherapy/cognitive behavioural therapy. Anita is right, healing takes a long time. You start by improving your relationship with yourself (this doesn’t mean being self-indulgent, but listening to and respecting your own emotions.) Then start work on just one or two relationships. You’ve got a dog. That’s great. I know this is going to sound odd but even being mindful of your relationship with the dog and actively appreciating it will help with the healing process. Pull gratitude into your life. Try reading The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels, especially the Gratitude Flow. Write down three things every night that you are grateful for: really small things as well as big things, such as:
    the Sun
    clean socks
    a song you heard on the radio

    This will help shift the darkness in the short term.
    Oh and as for your birthday, mine’s on Wednesday and I’m spending it without even a dog. And that doesn’t worry me at all.

    Painterly

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