I feel the same way. Harsh? Who cares? Cutting off contact altogether was the ONLY way I could get members of my family to stop calling me by a certain nickname that I absolutely hate. I'm 53. I've hated it since I was little, and I was always up front about hating it, but they wouldn't stop calling me that, because my feelings didn't matter. How dare I tell other people what to do? If they want to call me that, I need to shut up and quit having such a negative attitude.

I haven't been called by that nickname since cutting off contact. So if that's what it took....

What I really want to know is why people are compelled to do this kind of thing. Make it a special point to do the opposite of what we asked them to do, I mean.