Betrayal

Hi @Miffed

Sorry to hear you're going through such a rough time. I'm sure our members will be more than welcoming to you, and provide you the support you need to start moving forward.

Thanks for sharing, and welcome to the forums.

Welcome to the forum @Miffed, and well done for reaching out, most of us don't find it very easy.

I think considering your experiences, it would be easy for anyone to lose all trust and respect for everyone else. It's important to remember that not everyone will treat you like this and that anger, while totally understandable, can get in the way of kinder people helping you. Even the loneliness and self doubt can get in the way. I know this from personal experience because I used to shut everyone out and just keep to myself because I had no trust in anyone. Im not saying any of this is your fault, or that you are doing anything wrong, just that it's so easy to fall into such a deep, depressive hold that we can start to become our own worst enemies.

For me, it was talking to people who were actually understanding and supportive that allowed me to start to get some trust in people again and this allowed me to start opening up and talking to people and getting some much needed support in my life. So I think you've made a great start to reach out here and hopefully you can start to feel there are people who care and want to help and support you. For your own well being and so that you can continue to be the best mother to your son that you can.

Be kind to yourself and save the anger and mistrust for those that deserve it, or even better, just release them all from you life... as much as possible anyway I know it's hard to do with family, but you can't control what sort of people they are so just leave them to their own misery and focus on yourself and your son.

Happy birthday for Sunday.🎂 Use it as an excuse to treat yourself and take a break from everything and make it a great day for yourself.

Being emotionally violated like you have been is awful. It breaks your soul. I know because it's happened to mum and I. The last few years my brother has been hinting at getting access to part of his inheritance to pay off his mortgage. We said no, and consequently we never see or hear from the kids and we rarely hear from him. He's virtually estranged himself. My counselor identified that he had narcissistic traits. They use what people can provide them. They don't have relationships like the rest of us do. I suspect that is what's happened to you. All I can say is that it's not your fault. These people are schemers and never take responsibility for the damage they cause to others.