Home→Forums→Emotional Mastery→How can I move on?
- This topic has 8 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 11 months ago by Anonymous.
-
AuthorPosts
-
October 18, 2021 at 11:57 pm #387534moonlightParticipantHow do I move on from this?My very first memory is of my mother torturing me. I was three years old. She was shoving mangoes into my mouth and forcing me to eat it. I can recall she forced me to eat an entire box of about 6 mangoes until I threw up. This was my punishment for asking a stranger for a piece of their mango. She let me go hungry and I resorted to asking a stranger for food.She seperated me from my father when I was just an infant. She alienated me from my father’s entire family. When I was five she took me with her to America. Growing up, she only showed me one picture of my father. She said she had to get away from my father because he abused her. When we arrived in America she was 6 months pregnant with my sister. Before arriving to America we stayed in the Phillipines for a year. She got pregnant with my sister in the Phillipines. When we got to America she met another man, she gave birth to my sister three months later.She made it very clear to me that this new man in her life was to be my sister’s biological father while I was the step child. He agreed to this arrangement and we all pretended that he was her biological dad. They went on to have a son. I was told never to tell either of my siblings of the secret. Even though she casted me out as a step child she made me call this man daddy, all the while telling me how horrible my real father was who was living in a far away country. I only had one picture of my father. I was quite confused, how come I had to call this guy daddy when she made it very clear to me that my father was in fact elsewhere? When in actuality my sister is not even his biological child but we have to pretend that she is? One time when I was 6 years old she made me rehearse a line that was supposed to be an anwer to a question that she would ask me. She would ask me, in front of him ” When your daddy dies would you cry?” and i was supposed to respond ” No, of course not I won’t cry because you’re not my real daddy.”So when the time came I said exactly what she told me to say and he was offended but did not respond. My mother then said to me “you dumb child why would you say such a horrible thing like that, you will hurt his feelings” and she laughed at me.Torture sessions and beating sessions occured regularly. One time when I was seven years old I remember I was just sitting at the table doing homework. She decided I needed to be tortured for no apparent reason. She filled my backpack with heavy cans of soup and made me kneel on a pile of tiny sharp pebbles while wearing the backpack filled with heavy cans, after what seems like 45 minutes she decided I needed to hold two additional large soup cans in each hand with my arms to be raised above my waist.My knees started bleeding. She said that if I told anyone what happened no one would believe me and that they would just think that I fell and hurt my knees. Sometimes when the pebbles would pierce my knees too soon, she would have me kneel on steel grates to have a more prolonged session.When it was time for a beating session, she would have my lie on my stomach on the floor of the living room. She would whack me with a slim bamboo stick until it broke. But she had a back-up stick that was thicker so wouldn’t break as quickly. She would whack me until the skin on my bum came off and was bleeding. When i cried due to the pain, she told me to shut up or she would whack me some more until I was quiet. I had to find the strength inside my little body to stop crying otherwise she would end up beating me to death.One time when I was eight I decided to run away from her when she said it was time for a beating. She chased me with a cleaver. I ran to the backyard and ran through the empty lot that was covered in blackberry bushes. The thorns hurt and pierced me everywhere but it didn’t hurt nearly as badly as the pain she was about to inflict on me. It was the lesser pain and I was relieved to be out of her reach and deep in the bramble bush. Eventually I exited and she saw me come out, she began chasing me as soon as I got out of the bramble bush I ran up a wooden staircase to the neighbor upstairs and banged on their door. someone answered as she reached me at the top, with the cleaver in her hand. The neighbor asked me what was wrong and my mother said “oh, nothing let’s go back home child don’t bother the neighbors and stop running amock. ” she took my hand and led me back into our apartment where she proceeded to hurt me. She didnt strike me with the cleaver but she did take a swing at tbe fridge, stove, sink, washer and dryer. All of the appliances had slashes on them. She told me I was never allowed to have a child, she threatened to get me “sewed” up so I would never have a baby.She continued to abuse me physically emotionally and mentally until i left her hell house. When I was 17 she told me that the picture of my father, the man in that picture was actually not my father and that it was just some random guy. I felt so sad, I looked at that picture every night thinking he was my father.I’m 34 years old now, happily marrried and six months pregnant with my first baby. I’m having a boy. It took me a long time to realize that I always wanted to be a mother, I’m so happy to finally be able to have my own baby that i get to take care of. At the beginning of my pregnancy I decided to cut my mother out of my life. As a result my sister has stopped talking to me. I told her why I had to cut our mother out of my life but she gave me an ultimatum, either I maintain a relationship with our mother or she will no longer keep in touch with me. I decided that my mental health and the health of my baby was more important than catering to my mother’s every need. My mother would call me and cry about how sad she is and I’m supposed to comfort her and be strong. But I just can’t, not after what she did to me. She told me I couldn’t cry so why is she calling me crying thinking that I wouldn’t be reminded of all the times she told me to stop crying or she would hit me so hard un til I stopped? she never faltered until i literally stopped crying.I constantly think about this sad situation, I want to tell my sister that she is living a lie and that she doesn’t actually know who her real father is. But I don’t know what good this will do. I don’t want to feel rejected by her I just want to not care but I can’t get past this feeling bad that she doesn’t care about me at all. I feel like she hates me for no reason, I’ve never done anything to hurt her so why is she treating me like this? It doesn’t make sense. I almost want to contact my evil mother again just so my sister will talk to me but I know my evil mom will just hurt me if I do call her. She would say somethjng really nasty like she already disowned me or something along that line.I don’t want my mother to be in my life ever again, I don’t want to expose my son to any kind of evilness, especially the kind that resides inside my mother. As a result, my sister has stopped talking to me. How do I move on from this?October 19, 2021 at 1:21 am #387535TeeParticipant
Dear moonlight,
I am so sorry you had to go through all that pain and torture at the hands of your own mother. She was a sadist and deserved to be prosecuted for child abuse, but unfortunately she got away with it. Did anyone in your family know about your abuse? Have your teachers noticed anything? I assume she threatened to beat you up even more if you dared to tell anybody?
I told her why I had to cut our mother out of my life but she gave me an ultimatum, either I maintain a relationship with our mother or she will no longer keep in touch with me. I decided that my mental health and the health of my baby was more important than catering to my mother’s every need.
If you’ve explained to your sister why you’ve cut contact with your mother, and she didn’t see it as a legitimate reason, but gave you an ultimatum, then your sister doesn’t have any compassion for you and was probably brainwashed and manipulated by your mother. Maybe she even thinks that you are lying about having been abused? How was your mother towards her other two children? Perhaps she tortured only you, while pretended to be a good mother to them?
In any case, if your sister isn’t supportive and doesn’t trust you, you should accept that and not agree to her terms. Don’t go back to talking to your mother by any means! Stay firm in protecting your own mental health and the health of your unborn son, even if it means letting go of your sister, at least for the time being.
You are doing great btw – you have a happy marriage and are soon to become a mother – so it seems you’ve come a long way and went through some serious healing in the meanwhile…
October 19, 2021 at 9:52 am #387538AnonymousGuestDear moonlight:
This will be a long post, I hope that you have the patience to read through it, if not in one sitting than in a few, at your convenience. I first read from you when you posted on another member’s thread in August 10 this year, over 2 months ago. I did not forget what you shared there. I wrote to you Aug 11: “I admire you for turning away from your mother (ending contact with her) so to be a better mother to your child!.. If you would like to have me/ other members interact with you, please start your own thread..”- I am glad that you started your own thread Oct 18.
You shared back in August that it’s been 3 months since you went no contact with that woman. Before I proceed, I need to refer to that woman not as a Mother, but as a Monster (another M word). You stopped contact with the monster in May 2021. And if you didn’t renew contact with her since yesterday, it is now five months of no contact.
Back in August, you wrote: “I want to live an honest life and be true to my words. No hypocrisy is allowed under any circumstances“- Fast forward to today, I can see why honesty, truth and integrity are very strong values in your mind, heart and life: “One time when I was 6 years old she made me rehearse a line… She would ask me, in front of him ‘When your daddy dies would you cry?’ and I was supposed to respond ‘No, of course not I won’t cry because you’re not my real daddy.’ So when the time came I said exactly what she told me to say and he was offended but did not respond. My mother then said to me ‘you dumb child why would you say such a horrible thing like that, you will hurt his feelings’ and she laughed at me”-
-you followed her instructions, being the good daughter that you were, but she did not reward you for your obedience and loyalty, she punished you instead, laughed at you and insulting you. She betrayed you. You know how much it hurts when this happens and you don’t want your son to feel this kind of hurt: “I want to raise the baby as an honest person. I don’t want the child to grow up and end up resenting me because I was not true to my words. I would never want my child to experience the physical, emotional and verbal abuse that I went through. I want to protect my child from evil, and pain” (Aug 2021).
I want to compare your reaction to the monster with your half sister’s reaction to the same monster: notice in the quote right above, you wrote that you don’t want your child to end up resenting you, resentment means long-term anger. Your reaction to the monster’s betrayal included long-term anger. This is what you wrote about your sister back in August: “She doesnt want to be a mother out of the fear of hurting our evil mom“- her reaction to the monster is to see the monster as a good person, and therefore, her dominant emotion toward the monster is not not anger but Empathy: she doesn’t want the monster to feel hurt.
For you, the monster is “evil”. In your sister’s mind.. the monster is good. (She probably doesn’t think this way all of the time, she may had made references that her mother is bad.. but these moments of sanity are fleeting and superficial, and dominantly, she is deluded, is my best understanding).
“At the beginning of my pregnancy I decided to cut my mother out of my life. As a result my sister has stopped talking to me. I told her why I had to cut our mother out of my life but she gave me an ultimatum, either I maintain a relationship with our mother or she will no longer keep in touch with me… I want to tell my sister that she is living a lie and that she doesn’t actually know who her real father is… I can’t get past this feeling bad that she doesn’t care about me at all. I feel like she hates me for no reason, I’ve never done anything to hurt her so why is she treating me like this? It doesn’t make sense”-
“I want to tell my sister that she is living a lie and that she doesn’t actually know who her real father is“- who her biological father is, that’s a minor lie. The big lie in your sister’s mind, heart and life is that the monster is a good person.
“I’ve never done anything to hurt her“- But the monster is telling your sister that you did something to hurt her: ending contact with her. For your sister, the monster is good and whomever is hurting the monster is bad.
“she hates me for no reason“- her reason is that you are hurting the monster by not having contact with the monster (the monster told her so, and she believes the monster).
“why is she treating me like this? It doesn’t make sense“- in your sister’s mind, the monster is good and you are.. the monster. It’s nothing personal, really. She would probably hate anyone who’d hurt the monster (stated more accurately: she would hate anyone the monster claims to be hurt by).
“I almost want to contact my evil mother again just so my sister will talk to me but I know my evil mom will just hurt me if I do call her“- You value Truth. Truth is: the monster is a monster. Your sister is deluded, thinking the monster is good. If you contact the monster so to please your sister, you will be supporting your sister’s delusion/ untruth. In doing so, you will be encouraging your sister’s untruth to last and last. If you persist in no contact, maybe.. just a small maybe, your sister might change her understanding.
“How do I move on from this?“- resist your desire to talk to your sister. Stay away from her and if she reaches out to you with a bit of a willingness to see the monster for whom the monster is, then by all means, help her further to see what is true.
“if I tell the child you must not allow yourself to be in a relationship with someone who treats you this way, then I myself must live by this rule… So if I continue to be friends with my evil mother, my child will learn by example and I am setting him/her up for a lifetime of being in abusive relationships“- this is your integrity and it is you being a good mother. Please do not make it possible for your sister to (1) take your integrity away. (2) take a good mother away from your son, replacing a good mother with a.. (however conflicted) partner of a monstrosity.
Talking about monstrosity: “I was three years old. She was shoving mangoes into my mouth.. 6 mangoes until I threw up. This was my punishment for asking a stranger for a piece of their mango…Torture sessions and beating sessions occurred regularly… She filled my backpack with heavy cans of soup and made me kneel on a pile of tiny sharp pebbles.. My knees started bleeding. She said that if I told anyone what happened no one would believe me.. Sometimes when the pebbles would pierce my knees too soon, she would have me kneel on steel grates to have a more prolonged session… she would have my lie on my stomach on the floor.. whack me until the skin on my bum came off and was bleeding. When i cried due to the pain, she told me to shut up or she would whack me some more until I was quiet.. She chased me with a cleaver.. she began chasing me as soon as I got out of the bramble bush I ran up a wooden staircase to the neighbor upstairs and banged on their door. someone answered as she reached me at the top, with the cleaver in her hand. The neighbor asked me what was wrong and my mother said “oh, nothing..”-
“She said that if I told anyone what happened no one would believe me“- if you renew contact with the monster.. your sister will not believe you, fast forward: your son will not believe you, thinking something like: my mom wouldn’t allow contact with a bad person.. therefore grandmother must not be bad.
“I ran up a wooden staircase to the neighbor upstairs and banged on their door“- you are now figuratively inside that “neighbors upstairs” apartment, safe from the monster. Figuratively, the monster is sending your sister to bang on your door, carrying the monster’s cleaver. Please do not open your door to the monster’s agent, or to the monster herself.
“The neighbor asked me what was wrong and my mother said “oh, nothing“- the monstrosity you suffered is not Nothing. It is a huge Something. It is something that you will suffer from, to one extent or another, for the duration of your life. Protect yourself and your son and your husband from more monstrosity.
The monster said: “oh, nothing”. Your sister says: oh, nothing. Don’t join them with: oh, it was nothing, it is nothing.. I was just imagining Something.
“She told me I was never allowed to have a child, she threatened to get me ‘sewed’ up so I would never have a baby“- the monster hates children, doesn’t she. I imagine that she is thinking that unlike her, you will be a good mother to your child, and that enrages her. She doesn’t want to see a safe, happy child. She wants all children to suffer like she suffered when she was a child. If you let her have contact with your son.. she will want to make him suffer too. She will find a way, or ways to accomplish that.
“My favorite philosopher is Alan Watts, I listen to his lectures when I feel depressed. I highly recommend” (Aug 2021). A quote from Alan Watts: “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone“- leave the monster and her agent alone. If the agent reaches out to you with some desire to leave the muddy water alone, then help her. Don’t go back to the muddy water- all that you will accomplish if you do- is to get more and more mud on yourself and on the child you want to protect.
anita
January 4, 2022 at 3:37 pm #390757moonlightParticipantdear teak,
thank you for your kind reply. Although I haven’t posted a follow up message I have come back to this forum often and re-read your message often, heeding your advice.
Growing up, she only physically abused me and was what seemed like a ‘loving mother’ toward my siblings. I was outcasted the moment my sister was born. Growing up, the rest of my family slept together in one bed in the master bedroom while I had to sleep in my own seperate room. I was not allowed to share a room with my sister, even though it was what the governement subsidized home specified, I was so lonely. I listened to the radio every night to keep myself distracted from the lonliness.
I have not contacted the ‘monster’ since last mother’s day. But I have been in touch with my sister. I’m back here on this forum today because I’m in dire need of support. I’m reaching out to find strength.
January 4, 2022 at 3:47 pm #390758moonlightParticipantDear Anita,
Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed reply. I have come back to this forum often to re-read your post. These posts have helped me greatly to find the stregnth I need to keep pushing forward. I’m so grateful to have found such a supportive friend in you. Your message has helped me to move on from this. Thank you so much for everything you’ve said. Your words shed light on what I can’t see. I would be so lost and confused without your guidance.
I’m writing today to ask for additional advice. Well it has since been 8 months since i last spoke to the ‘monster’. In the last 8 months I have tried to my best to avoid talking to my sister. I don’t think I mentioned this but 10 months ago in March I moved from california to Austin (where my sister resides), and in June I got married/pregnant. I only invited my sister and her boyfriend to my wedding and at first she rejected the invitation because I didn’t invite the monster. Sister had a change of heart and decided to begrudgingly come to my wedding. When I moved to Texas she said to me that we should be closer and have a more open line of communication. So I confided in her and told her why I didnt want the monster at my wedding, only for her to back stab me.
I told her why I moved away from california (where the monster lives) I said it was because I wanted to be closer to her as I considered her my family and I was planning on starting my own family. Her response to this, she called me a hippocryte and that I had no right calling her my family because I didnt have any values due to the fact that I cut the monster out. I said “can I call you half family then?” She said things that the monster had said to me before. Things like, “So now that you’re married you think you’re better than the rest of us” and “Now that you married a rich guy you think you can just cut out your family like that” and ” you dont deserve to have your own family because you treat your current family like crap” I was deeply hurt when my sister said these things to me because none of it is true. When i first met my husband 8 years ago his income was just average, and I worked full time as a hairdresser. When I was living in California (within driving distance of the monster) monster never once came over to visit us, when I was sick she didn’t feel like driving to my house to see if I was okay even though I said I wanted her to come over. Her reasoning was she didn’t know how to drive 40 miles to get to my house. So my boyfriend and I eventually moved closer to her but she still didn’t want to come visit us when I invited her over for thanksgving, or ever. She never wanted to see me except for when she needed me to do paperwork for her. I was basically her lawyer, tax filer, accountant, translator, and personal assistant. I just got tired of being used by her for all of her paperwork. When I visited her on Xmas 2020, all i wanted was for her to not bring up paperwork and bills. But it was all she ever talked about. Every Xmas I would visit her and she would unload her bills, mail and various paperwork on me. I have never had a conversation with her where she didnt bring up money and bills. She never stopped by my work to let me do her hair even though it was in the same town as where she worked.
I was looking for something more meaningful in my life in terms of family. Xmas 2021 went well. I didnt call the monster but my sister reached out to me to hurt me some more. After not speaking to her since my gender reveal party in September she decided to ask me via text out of the blue. She wanted to know if I was planning on telling the monster about my pregnancy. I flat out said to her that I didnt see why it mattered to her whether or not i told the monster since she didn’t ever reach out to me to ask me how I was doing during my entire pregnancy (even though i reached out to ask her how she was doing, she ignored me). Her reply was “why should I ask you about how your life is when you called me your half sister and mom a selfish b***h?” This happened at Xmas.
So today, my sister sent me a text she said ” mom wantes to visit both of us, would you like for her to come see you and if so when is good? ” I ignore her and she is texting me again ” Can we talk?”
I don’t know what to do at this point. I don’t want to talk to my sister and I don’t want the monster to visit me. I have basically moved on. The monster had so many chances to visit me but never did and now wants to visit me all of a sudden, it doesn’t make sense. I went to university for 3 years and the monster never visited me not even once. One time I asked the monster for a ride back to my dorm room and I was denied that ride because she didn’t know how to drive the route. I got a ride from someone else. It wasnt a long drive just 1 hour to the University. It doesn’t make sense that she didn’t know how to drive from Berkeley to Santa Cruz or from Berkeley to Sacramento but all of a sudden can make a trip across the country from California to Texas to visit me.
I am 8 months pregnant and things are looking up for me I am so excited to meet my baby and have so much to do before the baby arrives, I’m so worried about getting sucked back into all of this drama which I extricated myself from in the last year. What do I say to my sister? Do I just ignore her or do I tell her I dont want to talk to her? I dont want to be hurt anymore by what she has to say, so I dont want to say anything that could make her hurl vitriol at me.
Sincerely,
Moonlight
January 4, 2022 at 5:11 pm #390759AnonymousGuestDear moonlight:
You are very welcome. Thank you for your appreciation and kind words.
You shared today that you used to live in California where the monster still lives. In March 2021, you moved from California to Texas where your sister lives. You told your sister that you moved to Texas to be closer to her, being you considered her family, and you told her why you didn’t want the monster at your wedding. In response, she called you a hypocrite and said that you had no right calling her family because you ended contact with the monster. She also told you what the monster said about you, untrue things that “deeply hurt” you.
Fast forward, Christmas 2021, eleven days ago, your sister texted you, among other things: “Why should I ask you about how your life is when you called me your half-sister and mom a selfish b***h?“. Today, she sent you a text saying: “Mom wants to visit both of us, would you like for her to come see you and if so when is good?“. You ignored her and she texted again: “Can we talk?”
“I don’t know what to do at this point. I don’t want to talk to my sister, and I don’t want the monster to visit me” – please respect what you want: (1) Do not talk to your sister, (2) Do not allow the monster to visit you.
“I have basically moved on… I am 8 months pregnant, and things are looking up for me I am so excited to meet my baby and have so much to do before the baby arrives” – keep moving on, don’t turn back. Keep looking up and forward, not back and down. Your mother made you kneel down on sharp pebbles by filling your backpack with heavy cans of soup, and when she wasn’t satisfied with how much you were hurting, she had you kneel on steel grating. Please (!!!), do not have that monster visit you, and do not talk to the woman who supports the monster, aka, your sister.
“I’m so worried about getting sucked back into all of this drama which I extricated myself from in the last year. What do I say to my sister? Do I just ignore her, or do I tell her I don’t want to talk to her?” – tell your sister that you are ending all contact with her, that you expect her to no longer contact you in any way shape or form.
Think of her as a genetic sister, not more than that, because she is not your sister otherwise. Block her from your phone and from all forms of communication.
“I don’t want to be hurt anymore by what she has to say, so I don’t want to say anything that could make her hurl vitriol at me” – if you no longer hear or read what she says, there will not be new hurt coming your way. If she tries to contact you, involve the police and file for a restraining order against her. Please reject any and all unnecessary suffering in your life. The monster and your genetic sister are just that, in your life. And please do post again any time you would like my input. I want you and your new family to have the best 2020 possible!
anita
January 4, 2022 at 5:40 pm #390763AnonymousGuest* Ooops, correction: I want you and your new family to have the best 2022 possible!
January 5, 2022 at 9:26 am #390791TeeParticipantDear moonlight,
good to hear from you again, and thank you for your kind words!
I am 8 months pregnant and things are looking up for me I am so excited to meet my baby and have so much to do before the baby arrives, I’m so worried about getting sucked back into all of this drama which I extricated myself from in the last year. What do I say to my sister? Do I just ignore her or do I tell her I dont want to talk to her? I dont want to be hurt anymore by what she has to say, so I dont want to say anything that could make her hurl vitriol at me.
You are right that you want to protect your peace of mind and your mental health in the last month of pregnancy – so by all means remain firm in your decision not to meet your sister and mother/monster! Your mother doesn’t deserve it at all, she tortured you physically, mentally and emotionally throughout your childhood, and in your adulthood, she never expressed interest in you, never visited you, but only used you for doing her paperwork.
This is what she told you:
“So now that you’re married you think you’re better than the rest of us” and “Now that you married a rich guy you think you can just cut out your family like that” and “you dont deserve to have your own family because you treat your current family like crap”
She accused you of treating her and the rest of your family like crap, when in fact she was the one who treated you in most despicable ways, since the moment you were born. She accused you of cutting her out, when in fact it was her who cut you out from the rest of the family, from the time you can remember. She did a great injustice to you, and is still treating you despicably, so indeed the only thing to do is to cut all contact with her.
Unfortunately, your sister agrees with her, she is repeating her words about you cutting them out, and you treating them like crap. When you opened up to her and explained your reasons for stopping contact with your mother, your sister didn’t have any compassion or understanding for you, but accused you of being the guilty one.
I see no reason why to keep contact with your sister because she unfortunately is completely blinded by your mother’s narrative. Perhaps it suits her to have you as a black sheep in the family, so she can throw rocks at you and keep your mother’s wrath from turning on her.
I dont want to be hurt anymore by what she has to say, so I dont want to say anything that could make her hurl vitriol at me.
I understand that your sister’s words hurt you because you do love her and care for her, and you wanted a closer relationship with her. But unfortunately this is not possible, at least for now, until she is in her current mindset. Try not to take her offenses to heart – as in, don’t believe what she is accusing you of!
You are a good, kind and loving person, not a selfish and uncaring one, as your sister and mother are portraying you. You are the one who was reaching out and was kind to your mother all this time, but she was heartless and cruel to you. Now she is portraying herself as the victim, because you decided to not tolerate her abuse any more. You decided not to be a doormat, and this makes you a bad person in their eyes. Well, don’t trust that, moonlight, don’t believe their words! Know your worth and your heart – know that you are a kind, loving person – and you will be able to deal more easily with your sister’s accusations. It will be easier to stop all contact with her.
You can decide how to stop contact – whether to ignore her messages or to tell her something – but important is to stop all contact without having a sense of guilt. Don’t feel guilty about it, because it’s none of your fault. You have the right to stop contact with your abusers.
I wish you determination and strength. I think you love yourself enough to be able to do it. I am rooting for you!
- This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Tee.
January 14, 2022 at 8:31 am #391285AnonymousGuestDear Moonlight: thinking of you, hoping you and your baby are well!
anita
-
AuthorPosts