mismatched views

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kizzy
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The more I work on recovery, with each layer, stuff gets thrown up. For me I try to keep going back to what Marie says, where's the learning, every situation is an opportunity to learn something about myself and how I think, how I interact and I am in the world.
The problem arises though when family members aren't looking at things the same way. They have been used to condition running the show, and as I start to step back more and slow down my reactions and often responding quite differently to before, it can often cause alot of upset.
I had a recent argument with someone and my view was totally at odds with the other family member. Old me would have either fought, to the death almost, to have my view accepted, followed by severe and punishing behaviours for God knows how long to purge away the guilt and self revulsion. Or else immediate back down, accepting their view , people pleasing stuff, once again followed by self torture and behaviours due to resentment. All this totally subconscious, I would be immersed in behaviours and have no idea why.
Now I'm trying to slow it down, have my view, be happy with my view, hear the other party, but try hard to stay with my view without having to win any battle, just reflect on it, reflect on the other persons perspective and decide what I really believe myself.
Sounds easy, but trust me it's far from it. It fills me with alot of emotions, unfamiliar uncomfortable emotions, that I don't know what to do with. But harder still, is that those around me are unfamiliar with this pattern in me, they are used to the old interactions and so they are de-railed and upset too. Why am I not pushing my view as hard or why am I not being submerged in theirs. So there's the added discomfort for the family, not knowing how to deal with new responses and subsequently I have to sit with watching their unease and resist jumping in there.
All very convoluted I know, but thats whats happening. And the old familiar fat feeling creaps over me and I want to run back to old ways. Is this really a better way, it doesn't much feel like it right now, I feel like I'm causing distress for others, I was used to hacking away at myself, I could handle that, how can I justify the ripple effects of my changing responses, especially when I am clearly causing others upset and anger.
It goes back to trust for me, I trust Marie and this process, I trust that the end justifies the messiness in the middle. I cannot trust my own judgements really yet as so much conditioning still to be unravelled. I trust that I will get to a better place in time and that those around me will benefit. Is it brainwashing of sorts , maybe, positive brainwashing, there's alot of muck to be washed out of my thinking and those around me have been contaminated , even if they don't always see it,and they need support too.
Anyway I'm rambling. My point really is that this part of recovery is very hard on family members. Everything seems mixed up and a bit over analysed, nothing seems to be clear anymore. What do others think and what helps??
kiz

Robyn
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be the change that you want to see... (1)

Very good for you, Kiz, to bring this up.

I feel as if I know exactly where you are coming from.
The more you develop and unravel your own personality, the more people around you are seemingly unsettled.
I remember this being quite some obstacle for me to overcome in my recovery. This refers maybe no so much to my family members, but very very very much to my partner...

We used to never have disputes, certainly no blow ups, always calm... This was due to my obsessive discomfort of conflict and thus walking on egg shells at home when there was stress in the air, not raise my voice to contradict if I wasn't happy with a decision, never express my opinion before I hadn't sussed out what my partner thought about something, etc...
In hindsight I know that my partner felt extremely stressed with not knowing how serious she could take me, which action or reaction of hers would or would not catapult me into self-destructive behaviours, feeling utterly helpless (as a person with almost obsessive helper syndrome she felt incapable of helping me).

This was really no life though, this was existence, and a miserable one on top of it. How could I/we even call this a proper love-relationship if there was not the least of honesty in it, neither of us being authentically me/her...a relationship based on mind reading , taking things personally, over reacting, under reacting...

However, when I started to change, raise my voice once in a while, say 'NO' or say 'Yes', say 'I like this' or 'no that's really not my taste', it started to feel really weird and all of a sudden a lot of insecurities broke open between me and my lovely partner. And all of a sudden we had quite horrible fights, hurting each other really badly...
I think initially my trying out new behaviours came out quite clumsy and I stumbled often through the words that I said, getting a bit nervous, getting an English-black-out (I am German originally, and when I get nervous it can happen that I forget the simplest English words...)
Anyway, I also started to get more relaxed about life challenges in general and personal challenges in particular. However, when I tried to pass my learnings on to her, she poo-had them and almost looked down on them and said things like 'these simple solutions might be ok for you, but my life is much more serious...' or, 'you have to see life more realistically, it's not all a fairy tale like all your positivity stuff'

(cont'd...)

~~ "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over...it became a butterfly..." ~~

Robyn
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be the change that you want to see... (2)

(...continuation)

God, it didn't feel at all right for me...
I only could follow others' advice, keep on going, concentrate on changing my own life to the positive, be patient...the people around me will follow suit, slowly but surely they will learn, get used to, even start breathing more deeply, realise that your recovery, your change of mind set, is actually real, that it is for real, and that your learnings are not only relevant for you, but relevant to everybody's life.

I still have to train my patience more with my love, not react to her stresses or unhappinesses. But she is getting better every day, I even catch her saying affirmations, leafing through my little books that I have placed everywhere in the house. I have to accept that she needs time, and my being impatient with her will not speed up the process. The only way she will speed up her own learning process is in showing her the prove that it works in being and living the change I want to see in the world, in her. And let life take it's course...

The ripple effect of your responses will become stronger and more and more positive, the more positivity you can place into your own beautiful person. It is the self-value and confidence, your own knowledge in your own esteem, love, honesty, courage, happiness, that will eventually permeate the ripples you send out and outdo the first, rather negative (because uncertain) reactions and ripples of your loved ones.
So yes, trust that it will get better in time and that those around you will benefit..because they will... keep up the good work... learn not to react...

I hope this helps a bit.

Love,
xxx Robin xxx

~~ "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over...it became a butterfly..." ~~

kizzy
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reply to robin

thanks robin
it gets so confusing and i can't help but wonder am i making everything harder for us all at home, but deep down i know i have to persevere and see where this takes me. It helps to hear that others have been in a similar place along the way.
kiz