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Originally Posted by MaybeYes
How does everyone handle being around their abusive sibling at family events? My family has no clue, and my brother and I never ever talk about what he did. We act completely normal around everyone...I often wonder if it really happened or if I'm making it up. No one sees how I try to avoid him or tense up when he's close. It's been getting worse the more I've been talking about it in therapy. It's horrible not being able to completely break free from him.
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It's like that for me, too. I pretend like everything is fine. I tried to address it once with my parents but they reacted defensively and actually stopped communicating with me except for email for a bit, which made me feel awful, so I dropped it. Before I went into T it wasn't so upsetting for me, but that's because I was so numb and doing some self-destructive things to keep everything out of my awareness.
I know my T wishes, in a dream world, that I would draw a boundary and not attend family events with him. I wish I was able to say that instead of suffering through them. The fallout is terrible and now I absolutely dread November and December due to the holidays.