QuietGrace: Gosh, thanks!

Honestly, it sounds like you had it worse than me. I'm really sorry to hear about all that, but I'm so glad that you were able to see an abuser on TV and only have positive thoughts. That's amazing, beautiful and strong!

My mom has gotten increasingly supportive of me over the years. It's just when her PTSD or MPD or bipolar get activated that she becomes something else, and she's much, much more stable now. I was distrustful of affection from her for a long time, but love is love, even if it's erratic.

They did a psych analysis on my dad, but I don't know the results. I suspect some form of ASPD / narcissism. He cares deeply about suffering people in the abstract, but when it comes to interaction, he can only maintain for about 15 minutes... unless he has something to gain from them. To his credit, he's put a lot of effort into being affectionate and loving to us in this past year, and it can't be easy when he doesn't get much affection back. There wasn't anything we could do to help him (although we tried), so this may have been the real deal.

There's been a number of near-suicides in my family, but so far (fortunately), none have been successful.

Soooo... Things are certainly not perfect, but overall, they're better then they were. Let's hope that trend continues!