This reminded me of my mother, not bipolar, but the adult child of a physically abusive alcoholic - which is another whole mental illness. It wasn't until she had passed and I happened across an article about ACOAs was I able to realize what had been going on the whole time I grew up. And over the years, I have learned to have compassion with what she had to endure growing up as a child.
I, too, walked away from her and my family and moved 1,800 miles away in order to have a life where I was not "disapproved of" and controlled all the time. When she became ill from the effects of the 1976 rushed-to-market, untested swine flu vaccine, I was the one who went and took care of her until she died. We made our peace, and she found out that I wasn't such an SOB after all. Like this lady, I still have a relationship with her - an even better one than when she was alive, as I think we have both mellowed in the past 40 years. We even laugh together over things
- like the day I found the sign that says: Sometimes I open my mouth and my mother comes out. My reaction was: whaddaya mean sometimes? We both roared with laughter!!
This reminded me of my mother, not bipolar, but the adult child of a physically abusive alcoholic - which is another whole mental illness. It wasn't until she had passed and I happened across an article about ACOAs was I able to realize what had been going on the whole time I grew up. And over the years, I have learned to have compassion with what she had to endure growing up as a child.
I, too, walked away from her and my family and moved 1,800 miles away in order to have a life where I was not "disapproved of" and controlled all the time. When she became ill from the effects of the 1976 rushed-to-market, untested swine flu vaccine, I was the one who went and took care of her until she died. We made our peace, and she found out that I wasn't such an SOB after all. Like this lady, I still have a relationship with her - an even better one than when she was alive, as I think we have both mellowed in the past 40 years. We even laugh together over things
- like the day I found the sign that says: Sometimes I open my mouth and my mother comes out. My reaction was: whaddaya mean sometimes? We both roared with laughter!!