For anybody struggling ❤

[griftalo]

I think Chistmas amplifies everything.

I was meant to be having a break. A break from single parenting neurodivergent children and I was really looking forward to it

It's not happening and that's one disappointment but it's the constant control by my ex that's the problem.

I go nowhere. I haven't seen friends for ages (years). They can't really come here because the kids don't cope. This man thinks the 15 mins he drives one of his children to school is spending quality time with him.

I really needed a break. I'm annoyed about the wasted money too but I need a break.

I'm either at home or at work and then he said he couldn't spend a couple of hours with one of his children because he really needed to balance time with the children with time for himself . You live alone in a bedsit (despite earning 60k). You have every night to yourself you massive twit.

I can't wait for my time off work but actually I know that's going to be a problem because once I fall out of routine, I might fall apart a bit.

I'm so cross with myself for getting involved with someone like him. He's just an awful person and I don't feel like I'll ever be free.

You didn’t know he was awful, abusers wouldn’t get anywhere if they showed their true colours in the beginning.
I used to be in almost exactly your position so I know how hard it is. Do not punish yourself. This is not your fault

 

[Bananabadger]

@Good Egg this time of year distorts things horribly and makes them unbearable, but we do get a new year soon which gives a boost the opposite way. The thoughts are massive lies.

I was stunned at work recently to find in a conversation with people I think of as massively successful and cool how many of them were really dreading Christmas. Naive of me, perhaps. But all painful family and personal situations.

In terms of blocking or muting, when I’ve done it, excluding awful random sex pests, it’s been entirely about me and not them. Something they’d never have guessed triggered me, and I couldn’t talk to them about it. Equally, one time someone unfriended me because of something I’d said which I stood by but which wasn’t aimed at them. It was a reasonable remark (an opinion politely expressed in a group where people mostly agreed) but it massively touched a sore point with her. I had no idea.