Sometimes i just feel so angry

Apologies in advance for this angry rant its been bubbling under the surface for days…

Is it ok to dislike your own mother? I love her as shes my mother but there are so many things that bother me about her so much so that recently i struggle to even be in the same room as her for any length of time lately…she doesn’t know i feel like this because shes too defensive to talk to about it…im resentful of her and i dont know what to do with the resentment because i dont want to feel this way…i feel like my whole life shes had me at arms length and put my stepfather who treat is terribly as kids before me…she had an affair with him when i was 4 and left my brother and i with my dad…my dad couldnt cope and the house got sold so we went to live with my grandparents…after 2 years we went to live with my mother and stepdad …my stepdad emotionally abused us and my mother allowed it…i suffered mentally and became anorexic for a time…i left home at 18 with the first man i could find to get me away from living there and from there i went down the road to drugs and drinking…loads has happened but now that im a mother myself and finally sorting myself out the resentment still grows…the audacity that she has to still judge me and my life to this day boils my blood…only recently she said oh i wish you had a man to look after you…because of course in her mind once i bag myself a man then i must be successful!!

Just GGGGGRRRRRR!!!

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When my mum had just died I saw a psychiatrist for a little while (one of my unsuccessful attempts at therapy when I drank). Talking about my mother and some of the things wrong with her I defended her saying ‘she was a good human being’. To which the psychiatrist said: ‘but was she a good mother?’

She was a lousy mother. And that was her job to be for me. A good mum. First time I really understood that. We don’t choose our parents. I’m sorry yours sucks. I hope venting helps. Big hugs Kelly :people_hugging::heart::people_hugging:

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Thanks Menno, it does help…its the fact that she stands in judgement of me as a person and as a mother that i cant stomach, i mean how dare she? If id continued to listen to her when i was drinking i probably still would be drinking…i believed her when she told me i was a horrible person and terrible mother and it got me lower and lower…when i finally did get sober i had then to fight not only the addiction but her total disbelief in me…the comments and the eye rolls…from the age of 18 she has always had a man backing her…shes never had to do the single mother thing like me…

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It’s so hard to face the continuing blindness of family members as we grow into our clarity in our lives. Vent away. Any one of us would feel the same in your shoes.

I’m sorry you’re being subjected to this. It’s not fair and it’s not right and it’s not helpful.

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What do i do with this level of resentment? I feel like its making me into someone i dont want to be…i am a good person but this must mean im not…sometimes i get thoughts of how she would cope if my stepdad wasnt around and it makes think well then shel get what she deserves and maybe then understand what its like to not always have someone in her corner…but for me to think like that is pretty horrible on my part…why do i want her to get what she deserves…

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I would never in a million years allow a partner to come into my life and treat my daughter badly …it just would not happen…ever…i make sure that my daughter knows she is loved, listened to, nurtured…everything my mother didnt do for me and if that means me being single then so be it
(More venting)

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Holding my hand up here to say I have a hateful mother and a hateful father and hateful step parents!

Perpetually abused throughout my life in some form or manner, emotionally neglected.

Tried to make it work in adult life with them, but alas we had to all part ways at different stages. I had to make that line in the sand for me. Boundaries didn’t work, my mother found a way around them or just outright disrespected them.

You don’t need to estrange like I did Kelly, but just know that not all family are good enough for us. They don’t deserve us.

Much love.

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I think until recently ive always thought there was a resolution for everything…that everything somehow can be sorted…truth is some things cant and after that its just finding a way to be able to bear things

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My mother is the root cause of a lot of my stress and anger. She behaves like a child sometimes, doesn’t look after herself (and I’m left to pick up the pieces), she’s allowed awful people to come into our lives, and she makes everything about her. I call her often to make sure she’s ok…but the truth is, we are polar opposites! And sometimes I have to step away from her so she doesn’t consume all of me.

Both of my parents are quite emotionally unavailable. I love them dearly. But I have definitely come to the conclusion that I need to distance myself from my mother, and set healthy boundaries; while not chasing my dad and always being the one to reach out to him. It’s exhausting and makes me feel rather alone sometimes.

I hope this hasn’t detracted from the importance of your comment. But definitely a lot of rants to be had on this subject!

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Nope. You are a good person. First, you are reaching out for help when you need it (which is helpful and wise); you are turning to a constructive space to talk with people who understand your struggle (Talking Sober); and you are holding yourself accountable (you are conscious that there are new ways of thinking and behaving that you are learning, and it matters to you).

This is just my experience and reflection, so if it’s helpful I’m glad but if not, no worries: take what’s helpful and leave the rest. :innocent:

Resentment is a type of anger, and anger is a necessary and useful human emotion. (Remember the Pixar movie “Inside Out”? The five emotions - Joy, Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust - are the same five basic emotions that exist worldwide in all humans. Decades of psychological research on different continents and in different cultures has observed that these five emotions show up in many different ways worldwide (some studies added Surprise as an emotion, but still, just six basic emotions), so the five basic emotions are the basic ingredients of human emotional life. They’re like the three primary colours in art: all colour is a combination of the three primary colours.)

Emotions are the energy that drives life and behaviour on the surface. They’re like the magma and tectonic plates and other stuff happening under the surface of the earth. A lot of the life and energy and warmth and growth that we see on the surface of the earth exists because of that incredibly powerful and vigorous and active crust on the Earth, full of energy and elements and explosions and connections and creation. That’s what emotions are for us: they are the creative energy that drives us.

Reflecting on our emotions, reaching out for support, and using the energy and momentum from our emotions constructively is helpful. In recovery, we learn to work with our emotions in constructive ways (instead of numbing them, which is what we used to do with our addiction).

Anger is a necessary and reasonable emotion. Anger occurs when the way things are (or the way things seem to be) are not the way they should be, and nothing is changing (or nothing seems to be changing). All the anger we feel in life boils down to that, and that is normal and expected and reasonable.

What is happening with your mom is 100% a valid source of anger. Your resentment - your anger - is completely understandable and reasonable and normal. It’s not easy and it’s not fun, but it is normal and reasonable. (I’d be more worried if you didn’t feel anger.)

Resentment is normal in recovery too. I am still processing (and discovering) deep resentments that have existed for 20 years or more. I listen to them in the same way I would listen to a friend who was angry. I listen without judgment; I listen to understand. It helps.

I share my listening with my friends in recovery. I am fortunate to have a short list of people in recovery with whom I have developed friendships, and I will call them or have coffee with them, and ask for input. (Sometimes I just need them to listen. Sometimes that’s all I need: I just need to be heard.) Each case differs, but the listening and the sharing is always helpful.

The next steps depend on the case, but it is always about seeing what I can control, and what I can’t control. (My friends help me see this sometimes.) If I am placing my worth or my value or my choice in the hands of another person, I am not taking responsibility for what I can (and should) control: myself, my choices, and my self-worth. In my personal experience, I often find that my resentments are based in that, or something similar.

Sometimes I write letters and don’t send them, then I store them in an envelope I keep in the drawer by my bedside. Getting the pain and the emotion out on paper - telling my story - helps me to externalize the pain, and it helps me assert my freedom and my independence.

Resentment is good. Not to hold onto forever of course, but what I mean is, resentment is a signal that you have a blockage, a choke point, something interfering with you, and you need to get it out. Think about that. What are some constructive things you can do to help you externalize and process this resentment?

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Thank you so much for this Matt…ive had to learn to reach out like this as part of my recovery…to allow myself to be helped…in the case of my mother i am angry because her actions have hurt me time and time again but because she will not even admit to any wrong doing i come up against a brick wall and then i feel like i have knowhere emotionally to go after that…

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Hey vent away friend if it helps you aswell i am happy with that…

I do distance myself from my mother alot but its like she just goes on with her life hurting me in the process and is blissfully unaware…u see its me that has the issue not her apparently…in a way i guess shes right because its me that hurts not her

That is painful and deeply hurtful - I’m sorry :cry:

It almost sounds like she is as trapped as you are. If someone locks themselves in a room with no windows, then says the sun isn’t shining, then it’s really their prison, their ignorance, their choice… and if they live in that locked room long enough, eventually they believe, deeply believe, that the sun doesn’t exist. And they believe that the darkness they see - the helplessness and blindness they experience in that dark - they believe that is the truth, the only truth, the real truth, and everyone else is just as helpless as they are. (They’re safe in that dark room - in darkness, you don’t see what scares you, so you’re “safe” - but darkness is darkness, and if you live with it long enough you think it’s the only way to live.)

And no matter how much you knock on the door, no matter how much you say “I need you out here with your eyes open; your absence is causing huge problems as has been for my whole life”, they don’t come out. Instead, they say, “Come in here to the room, where it’s safe. You can live with me here. The dark room takes care of me and protects me, and it can do that for you too.”

I feel pity for people in dark rooms. I feel pain too. It’s hurtful, and painful, and neglectful, and wrong. It is not how humans should live.

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She is in her dark room for sure and you know…the sad reality is if she could just admit and be genuinely sorry i would forgive her instantly…she will never do that though

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Thank you Raven, i definately love from afar as much as i possibly can. …we dont live together and havent for years…every now and then a convo will come up and im hurt again even with the distance…just yesterday her and my stepdad came to my house unannounced…we were discussing internet banking and she said to me if anything ever happened to my stepdad id have to do her banking as she doesnt have a clue about the internet…i said mam ud be lost altogether without a bloke in your life…she looks at my stepdad and says…look at her saying that to me…shes so jealous because shes all on her own, now im not proud of my initial comment it was a tad uncalled for but…

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A lot of unpacking in that exchange. But from the outset;

Resentments
Codependency
Insecurity

You need boundaries hun to protect these monster emotions from igniting.

No, you wouldn’t need to do her banking, but let that slide for the sake of being intimidated by two guests in the moment. Smile sweetly and play the long game…
No. No you wouldn’t have to. At all.
But it’s not the scenario now, your mom is just showing her codependency, let it go, don’t shoulder that in the moment.
If it happens, theoretically, that’s the future.

Boundaries. Don’t answer the door?

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They would just keep knocking…now i can most of the time play the long game but at times i get burned out with it all and i snap back like i did yesterday…its true tho…my stepdad will go fishing for the morning and my mother will turn up at mine for a cup of tea and shes like a lost soul because hes doing something without her…i find it really pathetic…

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It is, but that’s on her. Your boundary is not being receptive to her visits. Go out, say no?

I hear ya totally. My mums the same. Codependency builds castles and kings around a palace of shite.

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As pathetic as that is yet she could never even try to understand when id try to explain to her how i was finding life difficult as a single mother when my little girl was a baby…i asked her for help because i knew i was sinking mentally and i was told to just get on with it…i suppose she had never been a single parent to understand either

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I’ve never done or been a lot of stuff, but I can still be kind, or EMPATHISE. it’s a tricky one lovely, but I think you know you are not there to make her life pleasant. You are there to live authentic Kelly and show up for yourself. I just think it’s careless of her and you don’t need that crap. I am too angry maybe still myself.

Much love :orange_heart:

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