When I realized I couldn’t deny the truth of who the person I thought I loved was supposed to be over what I wanted or even allowed myself to see, That was the turning point for me. I believed for so long if only I was patient and gave her unconditional love ; If I was understanding and forgiving she would change finally, choosing to stop hurting me. I mean at that point I was convinced it wasn’t her fault, how could I possibly blame her after the childhood she had ; regardless of the fact that my childhood was far worse. I couldn’t see that while I chose to be better then I had known, she was more then happy loving as she was taught. The real truth is I could see her for what she was doing and choosing and I did, I just didn’t want to admit it because then I had to take accountability for allowing it to continue. I couldn’t understand that it was okay to stop letting her treat me horribly because this is what I had always known love to be. If I am being completely honest my entire life up until three years ago, I absolutely thought that this was love. It was the only love I had ever known or seen, it was the same everywhere I looked so it reinforced that belief. Yes other families displayed it in different ways, some had it better, some had it worse, some didn’t survive it. Still if you broke it down taking all the relationships I had been around.. friends and family, the differences didn’t matter the way it was all handled were still from the same basic structure. Love as we were taught and learned, it always went so against what felt right. I remember being beat and being told it was in the name of love, I remember love that wasn’t unconditional or fair, love hurt… if you didn’t give everything that was asked of you, if you tried to say no it was held against you and used to punish you later. Love didn’t mean I can come to you when something was wrong and you would make it better, instead love meant I trust that I can come to you on my part and when I do you will find away to make it my fault and I will be punished. Love meant if I did things you didn’t like I was thrown away and told I wasn’t wanted. Love didn’t encourage my dreams it only told me in every way at how my dreams weren’t realistic and how I would fail so I shouldn’t try. Love didn’t support my emotions and feelings love didn’t nurture me. Love taught me to use violence against those who wanted to hurt me because words were useless. Love taught me that I wasn’t good enough. I was too fat, too broken, my hair was a curly crazy rats nest and no one wanted me around. Love to me was pain and fear it is just what happened. So when I believed I had found my one while I was going through a major awakening/dark night/ reaping the consequences of all that I had allowed in life. Even while knowing what this was wasn’t right, or that it couldn’t really be love,I decided I wouldn’t give up this time I would do better. The love I was taught sucked and hurt and I had already decided that it wasn’t love. So I loved like I always have believed love should be, just as I tried to do better with my children. I couldn’t let this be their reality and it would be if I didn’t change it now. I started to hold her accountable because she was still giving me the only love she ever really accepted to be real. I tried to help her but with each time I did and gave all of me.. she only kept taking and using it against me… why? Because I allowed it. I only further lost myself and the more I lost, the more I broke until I found myself fighting for the will to live and no one was coming to save my kids or me but myself.
I started seeing the gaslighting for what it was and as I played our relationship back in my mind, reading through the emails I had written to myself to release some of the pain of our relationship.
I finally let myself see that I was dealing with a master narcissist. I may never know if it was fully intentional or if it was planned, I do know that in her way she loved me the best she could as the others before including my parents. Fast forward 3 years later, I can stand in my truth and say she has never really fully changed.
I know she is absolutely aware and I am not saying she didn’t try in her own ways but the fact remains she is still unhealed and when angry she is blinded by darkness and rage. At times it was so bad I had no other choice then to try and show not only her but myself that I wasn’t crazy. I began recording conversations because I started to believe her mind games. I genuinely thought I was losing my mind, she would purposefully and intentionally say something and start a fight and then convince me I said it. When I caught her and had physical proof on tape, I went to show her, she laughed in my face telling me she knows what she is doing.
I had no choice left in the matter ; The abuse, torment, struggle, loss and neglect were too much.
No matter what I gave her or she stole from me, no matter how I tried, no matter how I spoke honestly and asked her to stop doing things like stealing from me and leaving us with no money for basic household needs because her desires were more important. It didn’t matter that I was asking her and begging her to stop if she really loved me, to stop destroying me. It never changed for more then a few days. I had no choice now. I had to choose my children and myself because it was never and would never be enough to fill the void she held within her. The worst part is that it had nothing to do with me, but I still had to pay for it all and I wasn’t the only one.
I finally left and yes it hurt more then anything. I was so scared and left feeling broken and alone, all my worst fears & beliefs from a trauma filled childhood absolutely reconfirmed yet again by another shitty relationship. So I took time for me to heal and really figure out who I was because I no longer knew me and to be honest I didn’t really know my kids anymore either. The pain around our hearts became too intense to bare and all because I allowed it in. So now I am a single mom of 2 hurt and confused teenagers, I am broke & alone trying to make it all better and yet find a way to keep breathing because the weight of it all is collapsing my chest and what I wouldn’t give for a moment of peace. We’re in a new state and the way we got here ensures I would be left with minimal help if any at all. I broke all the way open. I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I began to release all the pain and trauma as i worked through all the beliefs I adopted in my past. As I healed, the way forward became clearer as I walked into this new chapter of my life. After healing and understanding what I wanted in a relationship and in a person, I decided I wouldn’t settle for anything less. Boundaries high, clear expectations in place and if you weren’t capable of clear communication and comprehension it wasn’t for me. I had set my standards high because I had taken the time while healing to not only heal myself but start to heal my children as well, no longer could I be blind to the pain I had caused them. I didn’t stop there. I continued to better myself, I added more degrees to my portfolio and started doing all the things I had forgotten that I loved to do. I took time and got to know people, weeding them out one at a times and then when I least expected it and no longer wanted it. That point changed it all.. I had felt it coming I just didn’t know what it was, I only knew it was going to be something amazing and that was putting it mildly. This is where love as it was always intended found me. Now there is no falling out of love because love is like the fairy tale I dreamed it was but never really believed possible! I never realized the love that we were taught was really pain disguised as love before experiencing true love. The love I have now is healing, it is patient, it is kind and it is whole. I now realize you cannot fall out of something you never fell into. The love we now continue to build together is one built on a strong foundation of communication, honesty, truth, love, respect, and trust. We may rock as we find balance while maneuvering through the last bits of trauma in relationships of the past and guiding each other in our truth but there is no fall.