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Thursday, August 3, 2017

FLYING MONKEYS



"Learning to live with the heartbreak of family betrayal  is a difficult and time-consuming process, especially after enduring what might seem like or has truly been a lifetime of suffering at the hands of Domestic Abusers.

Doing so requires mindfulness, a hell of a backbone, and ultimately a positive attitude of gratitude.

But it’s hard to feel happy about being abused — and it’s even harder to feel good about watching people you’ve known forever literally turn their backs on you when and if you out an Abuser.

Suggest something as outlandish as having all the family members come together to stop enabling a Cluster Bfamily member, or to watch while you sit back feeling powerless to defend yourself from smear campaigns started by an angry, socially toxic con artist who is actively preying on you or your family member(s) and LOOK OUT.

Chances are you will immediately become persona non-grata at ever family function, smear campaigned against in the most brutal of ways, and the stories you hear told about yourself won’t even sound familiar to you.

Such people are commonly known in self-help social circles as Flying Monkeys. When and if they band together to support or socially back a stronger predator, the Narcissistic Abuse tactic they are using is referred to as mobbing — a pitchfork in hand, led by a fork-tongued abuser style mob ready to do or say anything they can to ensure that whoever is targeted for exile.

Their primary goal and pleasure in life is to control other people’s psychology, emotions, and personal lives. Preferred scapegoat targets and anyone who purposefully or inadvertently become whistleblowers are socially shamed to the point of no return with regard to being functionally allowed to be allowed to live life with dignity.

The number one goal of Abusers and their Flying Monkeys (a.k.a. ENABLERS) is to ensure all Narcissistic Supply sources remain under their constant psychological control. If a target is financially, spiritually, and emotionally crushed, the hope in every abusive social predator’s basket of deplorable dreams is to have their targeted Narcissistic Abuse victims return to the fold, begging for love, affection from the predators, and the entire clan’s social re-acceptance and mercy.

It’s a heartbreaking and life changing experience for most, either being abused by narcissistic people or watching those to whom they have always supported and done nothing but love and trust align with people who situationally abuse.

But honestly, it’s the name of the game. ALL — and we do mean ALL Cluster B people manufacture triangulations, pathologically lie to alleviate boredom, and will do or say whatever it takes to self-promote while destroying another person’s life, mental health, and spiritual state.

Narcissistic Abuse is always about one person having power and control over another person’s psychology and emotions. Nothing good ever comes of it, either for the abused or in the cosmic sense for the Abuser.

People who betray friends and family members in order to elevate their own social status in and among toxic peers or toxic family members are guilty of a double moral crime — overlooking and subsequently enabling abuse.

Mobbing — meaning ganging up to talk trash, menace, and humiliate a target while banding together and taking pride from feelings of social inclusion — is truly one of the least attractive sides of human psychological compulsion to witness. Especially when you are the Frankenstein monster of sorts being hunted by toxic family members or targeted.

Flying Monkeys take several forms when and if they elect to jump on the bandwagon in order to make themselves feel like part of the “in crowd”. In their manner of vertical (rather than horizontal) thinking, in order for them to feel successful, there has to be a winner — but more importantly, they must create then totally socially, personally, and most oftentimes professionally annihilate anyone they deem a LOSER.

Some conformist adult children willingly align themselves with social predators in order to themselves escape abuse.

Others do so because they feel with another sibling or person out of the way, the charming Abuser will bestow on them something akin to “Golden Child” status.

Hoping to be treated like they are worthy, such people tend to emulate the abuser… ruthlessly striving to prove how BAD their sibling or a rival is for doing nothing more wrong than being born or breathing.

Most conformist children secretly hate or deeply mistrust Abusers but will suck up compulsively in order to do things like jockeying for more favorable positioning with elderly people. Seriously —CONFORMIST ADULT CHILDREN who have been raised by or around toxic peers are quite simply NEVER good people.

Many are readily willing to admit behind the back of the Matriarch or Patriarch of the family unit they seek to impress that they are hoping that when that person or couple dies, they (the Abuse Enabler) will have ingratiated themselves enough to sidewinder bypass an abuse victim in order to financially steal the inheritance.

It’s all about feeling like THEY are more powerful, somehow smarter for being Machiavellian, and to prove to those they hurt that they — as the former lackey, are somehow entitled to wear their abusive parent’s imaginary crown.

Whatever the case, family members who elect to overlook and enable abuse do something far eviler than the two karma inducing things enabling and overlooking abusers do.

When Enablers choose to socially and publicly align with situational abusers who lie about the moral crimes they commit in secret, they themselves actually BECOME ABUSERS.

How do you know when they have been socially lured to embrace the dark side of the personality force?

When and if they:

engage in the act of mobbingor play both sides of the fence,spyingand lying to both sideswhile rubberneckingand fostering more social mayhem.

By compounding pre-existing things like sibling rivalries, parent-child estrangement, or fully artificially devised, sabotaging triangulations, you know both who they are by nature as well as the type of people they choose to be based on their own desire of personality qualities to nurture.

That’s right — Flying Monkeys who support abusive, dishonest, lying, sadistic, or covertly manipulative personality types, simply by their choice to stand on the side of a predator over rationally and empathically validating a victim and seeking to stop enabling social predators, become something called ABUSERS BY PROXY.

And yes, that’s a moral crime — something that is akin to being the “get-away driver” for a bank robber. Make no mistake about it.

There truly is no other interpretation. It’s dangerous to minimize, overlook, or to try to sweep bad behavior under the rug when and if you are confronted with having to deal with social predators.

Moral crimes are those social injustices that no one can quite seem to hold another person socially or legally accountable for, in general. Deplorable behavior is deplorable whether a person can be or is ever arrested for it or not.

Moral crimes are things like promoting or enabling hate speech, telling lies to avoid personal responsibility, misleading friends and family members about private action as well as falsifying public image, and doing things like simply behaving in public one way while acting totally different in private whenever.

In close-knit families with many siblings, toxic parents strategically triangulate children and grandchildren.

Triangulation is meant to foster sibling rivalry, and most toxic senior citizens who have raised children to socially and emotionally compete for their approval, attention, and affection (as well as protection) themselves typically report having been parented in a Narcopathstyle by their own elders.

What’s more, toxic senior citizens who have raised families that divide tend to report that they grew up estranged from their own siblings emotionally, physically, or psychologically. That’s not by accident, either.

The more toxic a parent — especially a mother figure or female role model — the more likely siblings are to have been socially nurtured to think like conformists, competing with targeted or scapegoat family members for the proverbial one-upmanship status Cain and Abel already tried.

Narcissistic mother figures tend to thrive socially and emotionally by pitting their children and grandchildren against one another. The more a child strives to win favor with the parent, the more likely the other siblings are to feel less loved, less appreciated, less valuable, and ultimately LESS LIKED.

Having parents who like you — rather than simply barking out hollow terms that they love you — is a huge deal. People who grow up to have close personal relationships with their parents as friends tend to have the most stable families and personally fulfilling home lives.

But people who grow up with role models that declare stupid colloquialisms like “Because I’m your mother and I said so, that’s why!” in anything other than a truly joking, loving tone are likely to feel the sting of their parents toxic thought patterns and accepted belief systems. This phenomenon tends to produce in an adult child a socially and psychologically perceptible sting.

Nasty parents will smear campaign against an offspring the very same way a toxic adult child will do all they can to socially and emotionally target and invalidate a sibling with whom they have always felt less kinship and more rivalry. If the Golden Child of the family does something to displease a parent, watch how fast narcissistic and anti-social family members will slide right into position themselves as the new preferred favorite while hoping to keep the parent functionally estranged from a sibling!

Why would they do such a thing? Beyond the obvious SELF STROKING OF THEIR OWN EGOS, the biggest suck-ups in the family are typically those status oriented, socially and emotionally competitive family members who are above all else greedy and obsessed withWINNING.

That’s where betrayal comes into play, as people with Covert Narcissistic tendencies who harbor secret ill will against a family member or close personal friend tend to start sucking up copiously.

The pattern includes former spouses of adult children sucking up to former in-laws in an attempt to socially promote themselves while they rubberneck and meddle in their former love interest’s life, people who see senior citizens as weak-minded and easily able to be manipulated psychologically and emotionally into leaving themselves or their own children money in wills, and those who just plain don’t like an abuse target personally (but have always kept that fact a secret in order to avoid that person finding out they were two-faced, self-centered, and ethically duplicitous).

Parents who abuse their children often raise at least one in four of their children to be abusive. They persistently tend to enable that person, while showering them with compliments and absolutely unwavering social protection.

Parents who have several children raise runners, lost children, rebels, and golden children. The Abuser in the family (as the adult offspring most likely to conform to the abusive parents Cluster B thinking) does not necessarily take on the role of Golden Child, however, in the family structure.

That title tends to be afforded to the most self-interested and self-centered of all the siblings. Golden Children tend to strive to please and impress their toxic parents by sucking up, speaking one way to their face and another completely behind their back.

Understand that this is the personality type most likely to manufacture chaos, to betray their sibling’s confidences, and to ruthlessly do whatever it takes to make sure their material and social status is secured.

Sometimes that person is the adult child of a toxic parent, notably a conformist or Golden Child by both nature and nurture.

But it could be the sibling of a toxic parent, an ex-husband or an ex-wife, a grandchild who takes after theCluster B grandparent by genetic nature, or a person who has hung around and weaseled their way into the family network with the sole intent of spying, sabotaging interpersonal relationships, and compulsively seeking “validation” as a person who matters to the targeted family for years.

Noting that Abusers lie, blame shift, victim shame, and do or say anything they can to make people like them while they strive to socially destroy the reputation of a targeted Narcissistic Abuse victim, weak predators who suck up to Cluster B personality types tend to have a rude awakening in later years.

As senior citizens, people with full-blown personality disorders or extreme entitlement issues tend to get old without ever socially or emotionally maturing. What that means is, once the nicest people in the family have been “run off”, that the care of the elderly falls into the laps of those the least inclined to give up their own lives, lifestyles, money, or time to do it.

This places the toxic senior in a more vulnerable position than many of them who realize the reality of what they have done typically care to admit. If they were Somatic Narcissists when they were younger, age and failing health issues tend to dysregulate them psychologically and emotionally speaking quite a bit.

Most children who are targeted for abuse by a toxic family self-identify with preferred scapegoat status. Parents encouraging siblings with more aggressivepersonality types to pick on and abuse emotionally sensitive, thoughtful, and reflective children tend to end up stuck living with their nastiest offspring or shuttled off to places like assisted living facilities or nursing homes rather than being cared for lovingly and compassionately by their “overly sensitive” adult child types.

Children of toxic parents have tough life choices to make when it comes to deciding how to handle parenting strife. If adult children are toxic themselves, many relish at the opportunity to abuse their senior citizen age parent in private at every opportunity.

Why?

Because Cluster B people are simply all alike. Being able to abuse a parent who abused or neglected THEM as children is their ultimate joy, “victory dance”, and pride in life.

But if that parent gets savvy and wise to their toxic adult children’s (or toxic adult grandchildren’s) mind game, chances are incredibly high that their own narcissistic streak will let them go out on an emotional high note.

All of them — whether 30 or 80 — will tend to revert to playing childish psychological games to drive their caregivers crazy. Most, when and if they can gain access to a lawyer or accountant, will do things like move money around in secret and do things like write people in and out of wills in secret — so when they finally DO kick-off, they have the last laugh burning people who traded valuable years of their life and countless dollars trying to ensure their comfort.

That’s the most common horror story reported by children of all ages whose parents had Cluster Bpersonality disorder issues.

So many of them write the people who care for them the most out of their wills in secret or wipe people’s names off life insurance beneficiary lists with a vendetta agenda or out of pure ill-intentioned spite that is like meeting a unicorn when and if a loving adult child says they were well taken care of or provided for by a nasty parent when they die.

Take for example the Celebrity Narcissist news story about Aaron and Tori Spelling. When Aaron died, he was worth a fortune. But do you think he left his fortune to his daughter Tori?

No.

Aaron Spelling left his mansion, the bulk of his wealth, and complete control of his estate and holdings to his Somatic Narcissist wife Candy. Not to the mother of his children, mind you. To an evil Narcissist he trusted to do the right thing as the executor of his last will and testament, a woman expected to fairly distribute his personal property and holdings.

But guess what.

Mama Candy decided that her beloved husband’s daughter deserved virtually nothing. Candy kept the mansion. Candy kept the art. Candy kept the house. Candy kept the furnishings. Candy kept the stocks and bonds and financial assets. Candy, Candy, Candy, Candy, Candy…

And Tori? The daughter Aaron treated and raised like a Golden Child, doted on, and paid more attention to in life that he did the wicked wife?

Guess what she inherited after spending a lifetime following her father’s orders, striving her best to please and impress him? Bupkis.

Yes, you did read that right.

Unbeknownst to Tory, when her father married Candy, Candy — a Somatic Narcissist as his lawful wife — stood to inherit EVERYTHING. Trusting her to behave ethically was Mr. Spelling’s biggest mistake. Either that, or he was one of the meanest and most toxic rich parent snakes alive.

Tory ended up net gaining roughly 800K plus a carload of items from her father after spending her entire life thinking that both she and her own children would be financially protected, safe, and provided for in life. To some, that might sound like a windfall of cash — until you realize that Tori’s father left over 600 MILLION DOLLARS in estate holdings, micromanaged and kept for her own personal use by his greedy, rapacious, and narcissistic spouse.

Now, some toxic thinkers raised to read greed into our above statements are likely to say a parent owes a child nothing when and if they die.

But we’re not talking about parents who never lead children or adult children down the primrose path of believing if they allow parents to dominate their time, ruin their marriages, destroy their own relationships with their own kids while striving to please their unpleasable parent, and spend literally decades being verbally and personally abused by a parent who dangles things like “family honor” and sentimental possession inheritances in front of children in order to manipulate and savagely control their adult children’s lives.

We’re talking about nasty people who hold things like personal property from ancestors and family photos hostage.

We’re talking about parents who themselves pulled Candy Spelling maneuvers with trust funds left for grandchildren with the sole aim of easing their OWN financial and physical burdens in life.

We’re talking about parents who are so toxic that never one during the course of their natural born life did they do a single nice thing for a child without that child being pledged into indentured servitude for life. And we’re also talking about parents who — for WHATEVER they say is or was their reason — never one put their own child or adult child’s current or future-based needs above their own sense of material comfort or social pleasure in life.

To be told daily that if you just follow a parent’s orders, take their personal life advice, and fall into line makes you a part of the family is hard enough… but toxic parents who use money and sentimental property possessions as a weapon or tool to manipulate their adult children into kissing their ass for 80 plus years based on the promise that the time they trade doing so (as lost fiscally productive years) will be “made up for” when and if inheritance time comes near can truly leave an elderly parent’s primary social and emotional caregiver and companion unprepared.

That means no matter how much a disenfranchised offspring who is and has been nothing historically but a sensitive, emotional, loving, kind person striving to help their own parent of nuclear family of birth improve and elevate their conscious connection is accused of being “greedy” or “selfish” for feeling hurt when and if they are financially or socially shunned, the accusation is based on an illogical presumption that the same things motivate an Empath or HSP [Highly Sensitive Personality type] as does a person whose brain bio-mechanically operates in such a way that they socially, emotionally, and psychologically typify that of a person who is by nature or nurture a Cluster B.

You see, the primary motivator is LOVE seeking validation and ultimate harmony for most HSP individuals. Living life from a high EQ as well as IQ perspective tends to produce mature thinkers, noting that someone who is chronologically age 12 is likely to be twice as mature as a 50-year-old person who has a personality disorder like NPD, HSP, BPD, or a truly anti-social ASPD personality.

Be mindful that toxic parents raise messed up children at best. That includes scapegoats, children who rebel as black sheep of the family, those who enable while basking in Golden Child status with glory, and abusive conformists who take after their rotten mother or toxic father figures, too.

As such, the recommendation is to depersonalize abuse, disengage from a social relationship with any person who sucks up to a known Abuser, and take a life skills tip from those who are primarily self-centered, shallow, and egocentric.

Protect your OWN interests physically and financially. Stop sending all your retirement money and savings to help buy gifts for a mother who gives back little (if anything) and appreciates NOTHING. Stop taking crap from your angry and verbally abusive dad who was never there for you as a child but now demands you enable your toxic mom to abuse your fiscally, socially, emotionally, and financially.

Walk away from that nasty grandparent who did nothing but try to get you to disrespect your own loving parent while they compete with their own child for YOUR affection as their target possession acquisition.

The money you stand to inherit will never replace thetrust and (honestly) unconditional love of a kind-hearted parent.

It also won’t undue karma you create for yourself when and if you choose to accept the 30 pieces of silver a toxic abuser offers you to become their pet Flying Monkey — using and abusing YOU by pretending to genuinely care for YOUR long term best interests when all they really want to do is make sure your betrayal of a parent makes YOU an Abuser By Proxy, breaking the heart of your loving mom or devoted father.

And by all means if your sister or brother treated you terribly as a child, don’t waste one moment of your time worrying about making nice with them in order to please an enabling parent.

Let mom or pop take over the role of trying to deal with them — something they failed to do when you were kids, leaving them free to situationally abuse while parents did their own thing like sit at cocktail parties, avoid family responsibilities by claiming they “had to work”, spent countless hours avoiding true parenting responsibilities by engaging in busy work, or they played golf at the country club with absolutely zero care, concern, or remorse!

If a sibling showed signs from a young age of developing a Cluster B personality disorder in their childhood years, chances are that without serious behavior management and family-supported proper socialization of a child that they grew up to have “bona fide” personality disorders.

Early predictors include children likely to developNarcissistic Personality Disorder showing signs of having had Oppositional Defiant Disorder during their middle school and teenage years and kids likely to develop Anti-Social Personality Disorder having exhibited all the traits of little people who had Childhood Conduct Disorder.

Parents who have Cluster B are easy to spot. They glorify themselves, act with raging entitlement issues, tend to be the first people to point out why everyone they come into contact with owes them respect and should treat them like royalty, and they will be quick to point out everything in the world wrong with everyone but themselves — especially taking great delight in socially or emotionally shaming and publicly humiliating you.

Identifying a Cluster B sibling requires honest forensic psychology work. If you do an inventory of memory, chances are that your sibling’s personality by the time they were age 6 was fully formed, whatever it was at that stage of the game is exactly where they are most likely to revert to by core nature when and if stress in them forms.

Both parents and their toxic adult children tend to revert to raw, more primal “id” states of explosive rage-a-holics and become more (rather than less) sinister and self-centered as they age.

Time is never the friend of a Narcissist, and it damn sure never favors a Sociopath, Histrionic personality type, or person who shows symptoms of having Borderline Personality Disorder, either.

If you are expecting a Cluster B parent or a sibling to mature as they age, to realize the error of their ways, and to make your own brutal life history up to you in the end, you might want to consider buying that bridge in Brooklyn rumored to be for sale by toxic parents for YEARS.

Bridge the gap intellectually between what the reality of personality profile traits for Cluster B people and the Cognitive Dissonance inspired dream that you have that your parents and family members love and want what is best for you in order to save yourself from having the proverbial rug pulled out from under you.

Learning how to detach from the dream of having a family that loves and supports you is the hardest part.

But once you realize that the nicer you are to Cluster Bpredators you are, the more likely they are to loathe, abuse, and ridicule you they will be, the faster you will be able to celebrate your first birthday — 12 months after going NO CONTACT with any person who enables, enacts, excuses, or willfully chooses to self-promote while deliberately and consciously overlooking Narcissistic Abuse issues.

The faster you come to realize that when and if a toxic family unit comes bonding together to show solidarity in targeting one or more family members for Narcissistic Abuse, they accomplish one very real thing only in their attempts to socially undermine, psychologically destroy, and completely emotionally invalidate you. They pledge allegiance to the continuation of toxic family dysfunction.

What that means is, whatever time and money you lose is well spent to have such low-rent, vile-natured, morally insane people out of your life. Learning to live with family betrayal is something that takes time, patience, daily reflection, and above all else a strong self-help themed forensic psychology education.

With any luck the blood money and personal self-aggrandizement they engage in, treading on the backs of fallen, more emotionally sensitive and morally righteous family members who end up spending countless hours in agony, ruminating over the pain caused to them by people who by blood allegiance should have felt morally compelled to both love and protect them… with any luck, the Karma bus won’t be gentle when and if it’s driver comes back around for them.

And no — to hope that a person who harms you is held personally accountable for their actions is not wrathful. It’s trusting the universe to handle its business, noting that nice guys finish last for a PURPOSE.

For some, that purpose is to have enough time on the proverbial life pond to heal. For others, it is likely to land them in the loving arms of their creator after death, knowing they lived a good life striving to be a good person rather than acting like a grab-me-gotcha personality who relentlessly strove to one-up others by cheating, lying, and backstabbing with zeal.

But be hesitant to spend too much time wishing, thinking, or hoping a person or peer group that abused or actively strives to invalidate your fundamental human rights as a person “gets theirs”. After all, the more time you spend judging their motivations, intents, and misdeeds, the less time you have to spend purposefully designing the next stage of your own emotionally freed and well-balanced life.

When and if extreme feelings of emotional toxicity, moral outrage, and sourceless anxiety arise, go back to the basics. Read a self-help article written by an expert on dealing with Cluster B personality types. Check out a new research article about how to successfully cope with or self-manage C-PTSD issues. Do some yoga, go for a walk, scream into a pillow, or cry it out in a bathtub filled with sparkling, clean, healing waters and 2 big cup fulls of magnesium replenishing Epsom salts.

“Feel the feels…” as Spartan Life Coach Richard Grannon might say… or laugh their ridiculously hurtful, patently obvious attention-seeking and grandiose behaviors off as the wise young YouTube guru from someplace like Self Care Haven advises. Then, think things through.

If you are living in the present, the past helped create you. If you live in the now, look around wherever you are right now, at this very moment. Unless someone is making a Jack Nicholson face, wielding an ax, and busting through a door to try to physically murder you, chances are you can list 10 things you are happy about, feel positive about, or are absolutely grateful for having today.

And that’s how you do it. That’s how you survive.

Let the emotional angst caused by Narcissistic Abuse wash through rather than sticking to you. Live life 200 feet ahead of you at a time, just as the author of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” creator Jack Canfield advises people to do.

And no matter what, remember this one thing…

NEVER RUN BACK TO THE PEOPLE THAT HURT YOU WHEN AND IF YOU SEEK EMOTIONAL VALIDATION.

The only validation you need is recognizing what is and what is NOT Narcissistic Abuse. After recognizing that, do a forensic analysis of yourself as it related to having been affected by your life experiences.

You are who you decide to be — and whichever wolf you choose to feed in your own inner psychology is the core personality most likely to become the dominant one, fast.


Be grateful for the very real fact you yourself are unlikely to be sucked into making things like other people’s personal life dramas worse by engaging in acts of mobbing. Count your lucky stars if you understand why inheritance is about validating love and care for the person inheriting, eschewing things like greed and blood money.

Then, be perfectly happy to strike the first match when and if it’s truly the right time in life to burn bridges with people you in no, way, shape or form would ever be physically or emotionally safe being around.

Those kinds of people — no matter WHO they are or THINK they are — have absolutely no reason or right to rent space in your head, let alone to someday stage a hovering coup-style attempt to return." Credit:


Saturday, July 8, 2017

ADDICTION




I once read that when you become sober from alcohol or drug addiction that void becomes filled by another addiction. Mine became god. I immersed myself to the point my husband started researching “addicts of religion” It’s funny how alcohol addiction is tolerated and acceptable by society. When I was a drunk I had many acquaintances and a pretty good social life. Once I gave it up though, things changed. My new addiction wasn’t acceptable, cool, funny, or relatable. Being sober made me aware and no longer in denial about things.  Add to that, a religion that shines light on lies and “sinful” behavior made me an unbearable nuisance to be around and I don’t blame anyone for hating who I had become. 

After 25 years (from age 14-40) of stuffing down harsh realities and numbing my pain with alcohol what the fuck was I supposed to do? I turned to god for answers and comfort. Most alcoholics have the love and support of friends and family to get them through, but my family were all still drunks stuffing down their own realities and pain. They offered no love and support at all, only ridicule, hate, blame, and denial. Who else could I turn to? I turned to god. And so the addiction began and no matter who was against me it didn’t matter because I had “him” on my side.

I did horrible things during those 2-3 years of my sobriety and religion addiction. My husband even sent me to therapy. Looking back now, I wish they put 2 and 2 together and SEE that I was simply replacing one deadly addiction with another. But unfortunately they were Christian councilors. That’s like going to a drunk for therapy. They too were deluded. One counselor, however, did tell me that my step father and mother should have been sent to prison a long time ago for what they did. It felt good to finally get some validation for that.

Sobriety sucks. Reality sucks. But somehow it’s better than being an obnoxious drunk. I no longer wear a mask or fear what others think of me or tolerate hurtful abusive behavior from anyone. My kids are no longer exposed to my demented family members and they don’t miss them one bit. I hope I broke the cycle for their sake and their kids sake. 


I no longer pretend I’m healed or better than anyone else like I did with god. (That was another painful breakup) I accept that I’m broken from my fucked up childhood and the people that destroyed me willingly or unwillingly. I have issues that can never be fixed. But being aware of those truths doesn’t change anything really. It just makes me accept and love who I am as a human being, scars and all. And I want the same for my children. I guess the best part is that I’m enjoying a drama- free hangover -free life which I guess is worth something. And I have no god to thank for that, only myself for having the courage wisdom and desire to make that change.



Monday, April 17, 2017

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO BE FREE THINKERS



A thoughtful piece that’s truly worth the read

"Hi Unsure-mother. First off, though I am an atheist myself, I want to empathize a little: this must be difficult for you and your family. Your faith commitment is an important part of your life and it is bewildering to have your own child turn away from this. I don’t know exactly what you believe, but you might be worried about his soul in the next life, or his behavior in this one. If you don’t believe in God, how do you know right from wrong? If you reject God, how will you be reunited with Him in the next Kingdom?

The most important thing to understand is that these kinds of concerns, while very vivid and real to you, only make sense within a belief system your son no longer accepts. There is no sense in making threats of Hell or damnation anymore: atheists do not believe such a place exists. We don’t believe such a place could exist. The thing that is important to remember is that while we no longer believe that there are places beyond the world, the world he lives in has now become all the more important. That’s all we have. That’s all we ever have. His world is family, and school, and friends: all these things structure his life and he will need them more than ever. He needs you. He’s still a kid, and he’s a kid dealing with Really Big Questions in the only way he can: honestly and critically.

Most of us have come to this point honestly. This must be emphasized. We’re not angry at God, we’re not trying to get attention or going through some cultural phase. We looked at the arguments on both sides and came to the best conclusion we could. We only have 70 odd years on this planet. We make mistakes, too; we are fallible creatures prone to error and haste. We do our best. And sometimes our best is ‘well, I don’t think any of this is right.’ I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t rightly know where the universe came from, or how life began at first. But I don’t need all the answers to know that some answers are the wrong ones. I don’t know, and I don’t think Christians, or Muslims, or Taoists know either. They claim to know; I claim to not know.

Suppose I’m wrong. Suppose your son is wrong. I’m standing outside the pearly gates and St. Peter, or God Himself, gives me one chance to explain myself. What would I say except “I’m sorry — I got it wrong. I really tried. But I got it wrong. I saw all the different religions, each saying different things, all changing over time. It seemed just a part of human culture, not ultimate truth. I saw unnecessary suffering and couldn’t make heads or tails of it, if you were good and all-powerful. It didn’t make sense to me to posit something existing to explain existence: that gets it backwards. I’m sorry, God, that I didn’t believe in you, but it wasn’t malicious — I just — I just screwed up.”

What would Jesus say to that? Would he send me to suffer forever? Do I deserve to be tortured eternally because I read Lucretius as a young man — the 2,000 year old Roman poet who professed his atheism before Christ ever walked desert sand? Because I looked at the ontological argument and found it wanting?

Or would he press me to Him and forgive me? And wouldn’t I desire that forgiveness?

If there is a God that would send me to Hell for making this mistake, I don’t want it in my life. Nothing justifies torture. Nothing at all. And He would not be worthy of worship–or even respect. If He is merciful, then I will apologize. If I am right–and he doesn’t exist–then I live my life as a free man.

And that is how atheists live: under actual freedom. The German philosopher Nietzsche wrote that ‘freedom is responsibility’ — genuine freedom. I am responsible for the consequences of my actions. So: how do I live? What do I do? Do I want to live in a society where everyone does what they can get away with? What standards do I hold myself up to? This is the essence of the atheist’s morality: his freedom, his rationality.

Before even Lucretius wrote his atheistic treatise De Rerum Natura, there was another man, Socrates, who asked a simple and startling question: Does God say something is Good because it is good, or is something good because God says it is? We must be careful here. If what is good is whatever God says is good, then we have no morality at all, but caprice. If God says: kill your son! it is good to kill your son. If God says: from henceforth, children shall be murdered — then it is good, by definition, that children be murdered. But that’s not morality. That’s authoritarianism. And if you say: “But God would never do that,” I ask: why? Because if there is a reason, then goodness is independent from God after all. It is grounded elsewhere. In what? Well: maybe in reason itself? Or maybe morality is just part of the universe — a different kind of part, not like your sofa or TV or the moon is part of the universe, but the way numbers, or relations (like ‘equal to’) — an abstract object, none less the real.

There is a very, very long tradition of ethical thinking that is, in fact, older than Christianity itself. In philosophy classes we teach wisdom that was recorded a millennium before Christ. If it is impossible to be good without God, there wouldn’t be one virtuous atheist. Yet there are millions of us non-religious men and women on the planet, and we live our lives, as best we can. Atheists don’t fill the newspapers with tales of carnage or debauchery — clearly we can figure it out on our own.

Well. Not quite on our own. We have each other. No one else — just each other. And that’s enough. So be there for your son."https://lifeafter40.net/2015/05/28/to-evangelical-parents-of-an-atheist-child/

Sunday, April 16, 2017

COMFORT FOR THE DYING ATHEIST

Comfort for the dying Atheist



"As a physician I have seen my fair share of death and dying. Unlike the death scenes we see in movies death is often a prolonged and agonizing process. Could there be any stronger evidence for the lack of a loving or merciful God? Every hospital I've worked in, even the most secular of institutions, has a chaplain or other clergyman standing by to comfort the dying person and his or her family. These clergymen are almost invariably Christians who come to the deathbed armed with the purportedly priceless gifts of salvation and eternal life. Is it any wonder that the Church grows richer every year?  But what does the Atheist have to offer a colleague who is about to die? Perhaps more than one might think. 

1). A hand to hold. Not just any hand but a hand connected to a brain that thinks rationally. 

2). A reality check. Cognition and memory tend to fade in our final hours and the resulting confusion can be frightening. Remind your friend that ghosts, goblins, ghouls, devils, purgatory, hell, and other bizarre figments of religious mythology do not exist. Reassure your friend that Christian threats of eternal punishment are both primitive and absurd. 

3). Immortality. The Atheistic belief that we cease to exist at the moment of death is almost certainly true. But in the greater scheme of things we do, in a manner of speaking, have the opportunity to live on after death. If our ideas and actions have advanced humanity, even in a small way, then a part of us does live on. Remind your dying friend of this fact. 

4) Peace and tranquility Clergymen and evangelicals know that there is no better place to proselytize than the deathbed. But for the Atheist the same unwanted appeals to savage thinking that have always been annoying may be unbearable in the final hours. Screen visitors and politely but firmly insist, No, my friend does not want to hear about Jesus. 

5) Gratitude. The Atheist who gives to Atheistic, free thought, and other rational organizations has changed the world for the better.  Unlike the individual who leaves money to a Christian church in a misguided attempt to buy salvation, the Atheist expects nothing in return.  Thank the dying Atheist for this unselfish act and for helping to make the world a better place for future generations

What follows is by JK.

6). That future non-existence is no worse than the non-existence before birth. [This fact was argued by the Epicurean philosophers and is found inDe Rerum Natura by Lucretius.



7). That the atheist is unto himself true.  He doesn't have to suppress the obvious conclusions that as happened unto Fido and Polly, so to will happen to him.  Nor does he have to believe that a beneficent Jehovah created has created a world full of illness, poverty, and cruelty and allows it continue--or the absurd excuses such as he must test us to find out who is worthy of salvation. Nor does he have to fret that he will not be among the 144,000 blessed (as stated inRevelations) and thus eternally to endure hell fires. 



8).  That if perchance there is a god, we have a soul, and the god chooses among the soul which shall be blessed in the hereafter, it is far more likely that he will choose a rational, thinking person who comes to a reasoned conclusion about god and worship then some religious fool—the turning around of Pascal's Wager."


Letter to the Editor published in American Atheist, Nov. 2001,
Bruce T. Flamm, MD, California 
.







*  David Hume, one of the 2 greatest English philosophers, recalled what transpired with the death of Voltaire:  a member of the clergy being present who said that Voltaire had underwent last rites.  (However, the Church must have known this to be a lie, for they would not allow Voltaire to be buried in church grounds). David Hume arranged before his death to have Boswell, the famed English chronicler and Hume's friend present, to prevent the same being said of him as was of Voltaire. A reading of Adam Smith's short account of his last day and his short autobiographical sketchreveals that he was far from frightened at the prospect of eternal non-existence. He writes of an inner calmness and relief as the end of his life approached." http://www.skeptically.org/ethicsutility/id7.html




Saturday, April 15, 2017

ARE YOU IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH A NARCOPATH?














Why do women stay in abusive relationships? Here are 9 of the most common reasons:

1. Fear
The most compelling reason women stay in abusive relationships is because they are afraid. Abusers are all about control, and often when a women exerts control over her own life, the violence escalates. More than 70% of domestic violence injuries and murders happen after the victim has left the relationship.
An abuser might threaten to harm or even kill their partner if she tries to leave. Or he might threaten to harm family members, take the children away, or spread terrible rumors about his partner.


When a woman fears for her safety, the safety of her children or family, or her own reputation or livelihood, staying in the abusive relationship feels like the only alternative.

2. Concern for Children
Leaving an abusive relationship is much more difficult when children are involved. A woman might feel unable to support her children on her own, or she might fear for her children’s well-being and safety if she leaves.
She might experience guilt about taking her children away from their father or breaking up the family. Their may be threats by the abuser that he will turn the children against his partner if she leaves.
Also, he might get joint custody of the children, and she fears leaving them alone with him. Or she wants to serve as a buffer to protect her children from her abuser’s anger and violence.

3. Shame and Low Self-Esteem
If the abuse has gone on for some time, a woman’s self-esteem erodes to the point that she feels she deserves the abuse.
She might feel she isn’t good enough for someone who treats her kindly, with love and respect. Or she might be brainwashed by her partner to believe she can’t cope without him.
Some women feel the familiarity of abuse is better than the unknowns of life outside of the relationship. Things might be worse than they are with the abuser.
Feeling shame about the abuse is another reason women stay. They don’t want to expose the abuse and their own tolerance of it to friends and family by leaving their partner.

Are you living with an emotional abuser? Click here to get your free Emotional Abuse Test. Find out your personal score.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “peers, family members, and others in the community (e.g., coworkers, social service-providers, police, or clergy) minimize or ignore the abuse and fail to provide consequences.” Victims are often shamed or admonished about the relationship rather than offered help and support.


4. The Abuser Prevents Them From Leaving
An abusive partner can go to great extremes to control and isolate his victim. He might take her cellphone or car keys to keep her isolated at home.He might cut her off financially or keep her on a very tight budget.
Some abusers have prevented friends and family from contacting their partners or have even physically prevented a woman from leaving the house.
They use fear and intimidation to prevent their partner from taking any action that might lead to exposure of the abuse or the end of the relationship.


5. The Abuse Feels Normal
For some women, an abusive relationship feels normal. They assume all intimate relationships involve some form of physical or psychological violence.
They may have grown up in an abusive family and observed their father abusing their mother. Or a woman may have experienced worse trauma than physical or emotional violence growing up.
If a woman was raped or violated by her father, she might confuse this violence for some form of love or acceptance from this powerful figure in her life.
Children don’t have the mental or emotional skills to cope with the pain and mixed messages they receive in an abusive household. They carry this confusion into their adult lives and find themselves choosing partners who repeat the twisted dynamics of their childhood experiences.


6. Attachment To Their Partner
An abusive relationship can begin as a loving relationship. A woman might fall in love with a caring, kind man whose controlling and violent tendencies don’t show up until later in the relationship.
The abuser isn’t always a “bad” person who is completely evil. The abuser may have suffered abuse himself. He may have low self-esteem or have no idea how to manage his feelings of anger, shame, or confusion.
This doesn’t excuse the abuse, but it reveals how complicated this kind of relationship can be. A woman can love and fear her partner at the same time. She longs for the man she knew when she first met her partner and remembers how amazing he can be. Many victims cling to the positive qualities of their abuser rather than to focus on the abuse.
The abuser might show just enough of his “good” side that his partner holds out hope that he will finally change and realize how much she loves him. She knows a good man is underneath the violence and control.
Physically abusive relationships often follow cycles of violence followed by extreme remorse by the abuser, a period of happiness and calm, and then an escalation of the abuse again. Over time the cycle gets shorter, with fewer days of calm before the storm.
A victim might also have cultural or religious beliefs that prevent her from leaving the relationship. She might feel her extended family or religious community will shun or shame her if she leaves her abuser. Or she might have a disability that makes her feel completely dependent on her abusive partner.
Some women prefer the crumbs of intimacy, sex, and companionship of the abusive partner to the potential loneliness of being alone.


7. Feeling Responsible For Their Partner
An abuser often tries to make their victim feel responsible for the abuser’s happiness and well-being. They may use false flattery, guilt-trips, blame, and violence to force the victim to cater to them and remain in the relationship.
The abuser might threaten that they will lose their job, commit suicide, or lose their family if the victim leaves them, and therefore it will all be the victim’s fault.
Abusers often target sensitive, kind women, and they have learned how to manipulate these women emotionally in order to keep them tied to the relationship. The woman feels sorry for her abusive partner, even though he is making her life miserable.
The abusive partner might suggest that if the woman stays and tries harder to be “better,” then the abuse will stop. But nothing is ever quite good enough, no matter how hard she may try.
In some situations, the abuser is unable or unwilling to work and depends on the victim for financial support. The victim feels guilty tossing him out, believing he has no other means of support.


8. Financial Concerns
A woman may feel financially dependent on her abuser, especially if he controls her access to money and if he’s the main breadwinner in the family.
He might threaten to cut her and the children off completely if she ends the relationship, leaving her destitute and homeless.
If she isn’t able to work or perceives she doesn’t have the skills or ability to make money, the victim feels trapped and helpless. This is particularly true for women who don’t have family members or supportive friends available to help her make the transition out of the relationship.

With no place to live, no job opportunities on the horizon, and no access to bank accounts, the woman sees no other option but to stay with the abuser.

9. Post-Traumatic Stress
Victims of long-term abuse will sometimes psychologically detach from the trauma in order to cope and will develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTSD).
According to Psychology Today, “Many others suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, one symptom of which is dissociation, which often creates such profound detachment from the reality of the abuse that sufferers scarcely remember being hurt at all. Dissociating victims can’t leave the abuse because they aren’t psychologically present enough to recall the pain of what happened.”
Anyone who has suffered from trauma — and abuse is trauma — will eventually develop symptoms of PTSD. These symptoms include:
  • Trouble remembering key features of the traumatic event
  • Negative thoughts about oneself or the world
  • Distorted feelings like guilt or self-blame
  • Loss of interest in enjoyable activities
These symptoms make the victim feel further isolated and alienated from friends and family members. PTSD also makes it much more difficult to see the abuse for what it is and to have the courage and emotional energy to leave the relationship.

Understanding the reasons why women remain in abusive relationships is the starting point for helping them reclaim their lives and dignity.
If you are a victim, knowing that you aren’t just “weak,” selfish, or deserving of this treatment can give you the determination and fortitude to seek help and leave your abuser.
If you know a victim, recognizing all of the contributing factors and difficulty involved in ending an bad relationship will help you offer the understanding and support the victim so desperately needs.
If you fear for your own safety or the safety of someone you know, please contact 911 or The National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Friday, April 7, 2017

DEAR CHRISTIAN, PLEASE READ YOUR BIBLE!




I didn’t grow up in a religious household but being born and brought up in a Christian culture, I learned the stories of Jesus, the cross, heaven and hell. I spent 2 years in a Catholic boarding school but never really took to religion. My religious experience started much later in life at a time when my whole world came crashing down.  This pain “drew me to god” to try and find answers.  It’s a proven fact that most people “find god” in the darkest times of their lives whether it’s a death/ loss of a loved one, time spent in prison, or when facing death themselves. Once I started studying the Bible I started to believe it was god causing all the pain and chaos in my life to "draw" me to him (therefore saw my pain and suffering as a blessing) and it wasn’t until I was well versed in the bible that I began to question the reality of this tribal god and all the stories written.

Christianity’s main message is all about embracing pain and suffering, self denial and total submission to it’s god. No wonder it draws the afflicted like a moth to light. The prosperous, and healthy may claim this god as their own but they’re usually the ones who don’t take the bible seriously or even know what’s written in it. These are the ones who go to church on Sunday, pay some tithes, pray here and there, and go about living their lives. But the afflicted and broken tend to seek out this god with all their mind heart and soul. These are the ones who end up knowing the bible through and through. These are the “good” christians who are the most dangerous to society. The “bad” christians who live for this life yet claim the christian god aren’t as extreme or dangerous but because they believe in this god it enables christianity to thrive and continue destroying the lives of many. 

Why do I “waste” my time exposing this mystical god so much? Because I know how it corrupts the minds and hearts of it’s believers. I know the pain it brings to their loved ones and the world as a whole. Religion is poison and destroys all that’s good in the world. Religion is outdated yet kept alive by the ignorant indoctrinated fools for the profit of evil rulers who are often times not believers at all but atheists. They use religion as a tool to enslave, subdue, and rob the masses. Some brave people begin to question things they’ve been taught at a young age and break free from the lies and deceptions. Others are too fearful and selfish to question things because truth is always uncomfortable at first. 

The religious often say self denial is the key to compassion and love for others. But I’ve learned through all of this that when you focus so much on denying SELF, it puts all your focus onSELF. When your life focus is on your own wretchedness, suffering, martyrdom and favor with the almighty; how the hell is your mind on compassion and empathy for the world around you? It's not.  Instead you assume you’re above the “infidels and heathens”. That’s why when religion is questioned and mocked the only responses are threats of damnation or false assumptions of ones soul and destiny after death. It’s all fearful ignorance based on the assumptions of man written on pages of a book.