Quote:
Originally Posted by healingme4me
Did you grow up with your stepmom?
I think with siblings there's always some rivalry, there's books about it. It can be baseless or completely founded. I find it frustrating as a parent, at the same time, I encourage both stop the nonesense or stand your ground and verbally stand up for yourself. At the same time, I can turn around and witness the closest of friendships. As though they are each others safe training grounds for the outside world.
But if you grew up in an environment where there was utter meanness trickling down from a viscious stepmom, then therein could lay a piece of your puzzle.
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I was primarily raised by my father. My biological mother wasn't around so between the ages of 4-13 it was just me, my brother and father. Dad wasn't always at home to care of us because he had to work the weekdays. Step mom comes in the picture at around 2001 after my dad files for divorce with my real mom. We hadn't kept in touch with our biological mother because we were told by our father she didn't care for us.
Step mom was terrible and still is, she hasn't changed much. She would often emotionally and verbally abuse my sisters and even turn them against each other for not obeying her every order. Early on I think they had to deal with a lot but I always took their side since I knew she was in the wrong. She eventually started doing the same to me and so now I had it from all sides. My sisters and stepmom abusing me. Sisters simply putting me down on nearly a daily basis for no reason and stepmom not including me in anything. My dad largely defended her actions. He didn't intervene for any of us except in the rarest of exceptions he would say the truth but it wouldn't last. He'd go back to her defense in nearly every instance.
Anyway, of the 4 sisters two are step-sisters and they began to do the exact same thing to me. They are also mistreated by their mother but not to the extent that we were. My stepmom is generally more forgiving with them but she does hurl insults along with her emotional abuse. I'm thinking that my stepmom is likely a narcissist but not entirely sure either.
We've all moved out years ago, I live on my own but I'm the only one who's a bit stuck in life. All my siblings (brother & 2 sisters) are married with kids and they live relatively normal lives but after high school I developed a panic disorder and went through a psychotic episode in which the psychiatrist prescribed Risperidone and then Seroquel until the symptoms stopped. They intially thought it was schizophrenia but in 2014 I was in the hospital after an overdose and was diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder. I don't really keep in touch with many family members at all, I thought maybe distance is the best thing, particularly from my father and step mom.