@Mugglewump @knickerbocker glory, I don’t know if you’ve read Abigail Shrier’s first book (knickerbocker, I might have copied and pasted an extract in a previous convo or I might be confusing my ks again!), but she talks about adult children going ‘no contact’ in her second book ‘Bad Therapy’ and I actually found it really helpful!
she talks about how it’s not kids from big T trauma backgrounds, where they might have been separated from their families in childhood for whatever reason, who are suddenly cutting off their families. Those adult children tend to be desperate to maintain a relationship, and work very hard to do so, often at huge personal cost.
instead it’s often those from more stable, middle class families who have convinced themselves that their parents/families are ‘toxic’ - maybe even ‘narcissistic’ - and have cut them off as a way of individuating themselves from the family unit. Really it’s a sign that they have sufficiently bonded in childhood, because they do actually know that there’s very little they could do to cause their families to abandon them completely. It’s really quite easy to say “mummy and daddy im not talking to you anymore” if you know deep down that mummy and daddy would do anything to welcome you back into the fold.
adult children from genuinely damaged families don’t have the comfort of that knowledge. They might be all too aware of their families difficulties and struggle to individuate their own needs from theirs, or they may fear that doing so will leave
them ostracised and cut out of the family fold. So they cling on for dear life.
I used to really berate myself about the relationship I have with my grandparents, because I can sense that we all long for a closeness that none of us have the skills to maintain, but I’ve seen this growing culture of those my age suddenly cutting their parents off and think ‘blimey, 1) that seems a bit extreme but also 2) why can’t I do that?’. Reading Bad Therapy really helped straighten it out in my own mind, and I can now give myself some credit for trying as hard as I have to maintain the relationship.
It also makes me hopeful that there is a way back for these NC adult children, because what they’re doing is actually adaptive behaviour - leaving/individuating from the ‘tribe’ - in an incredibly maladaptive environment. If this was any other moment in time, these are exactly the kinds of young people we’d need who’d have the confidence to leave their families, go forth into the world and make it better. Their base, evolutionary instincts have been hijacked by malevolent actors and im truly sorry for the enormous pain and suffering this must be causing both them and you
@knickerbocker glory @Mugglewump.
but they have the right ‘coding’ so to speak, meaning that if we can fix the environment, then the rest should follow. I don’t know if any of that is of any comfort, and I’m sure you’ve already contemplated every angle of this anyway, but please know the Terfs will always have your back! And if they try to shut us down, well… we’ll just go somewhere else!
I also don’t mean to dismiss or disparage any difficulties these adult children may have experienced (not yours specifically because obviously I don’t know). They may have legitimate grievances and perhaps in some instances it really is better off for everybody to start afresh. It’s just that in my experience, those in genuinely abusive relationships don’t find it that easy to leave…