Recovering From Bad Religion

The battle with God continues, and I am hoping the price of this will not be my faith entirely. You know you got trouble with God when most of your prayers are complaints like, "Why does everything default to bad?" and "Why don't You listen to me and show me a little bit of love?" I was warned years ago that faith can shipwreck on the Bitter Island, and it is a fear, but God's silence and seeming not to care, has worn me down.

Why am I so angry at God? It started with Aunt Scapegoat's death and seeing evil "win". I have spent 10 years trying to claw myself and husband out of a ditch with no success. Maybe it is a midlife crisis married to being worn down by 20-30 years of really bad health or seeing dreams of close Christian fellowship and other ideals dying on the vine. It is hard to explain. It's like Christian ideals hitting a wall of cold hard reality. My life did not turn out. Outside some good online friends and husband, I am almost friendless in this world The idea that "everything will work out" on top of so many broken dreams has not worked.

Already being out of the churches, I have realized many of my beliefs are very different from many evangelicals and others. They already consider me an apostate for leaving and sleeping in on Sunday morning. My renouncement of Trump has made me the "devil's child" among some Christian circles. My old pastor on Facebook seemed to infer I really was never saved, because of doubts I have shared with him. I knew my salvation was sincere years ago. That troubled me a lot! I had negative thoughts about him, wondering what could he know of my life with his boat, mission trips to Africa and 4 children and good health?

[I didn't follow these rules, the no birth control one is absurd and more for the Quiverfuls, but the rest was a given in the IFB]

 One thing I never fit in with a lot of Christian people. I talked about how there was the whole Stepford affect in the churches, where "perfect" people insisted I be perfect too. You know there's a problem when you never saw any divorced, childless, or disabled people in any of the IFB, or mainstream evangelical churches you visited. Many Christians seem to live in a Christian bubble. They only are friends with other Christians, and their families are Christian. In the IFB, converts were far rarer then you'd imagine but I noticed this in other mainstream evangelical churches I visited and attended too. The culture was one I never really fit in. Socioeconomically I did not fit in with most Christian families. How was I to relate to homeschooling mothers? I was a convert in, a seeker that decided Christianity was true, and this seemed to mark me for life, as "other" anyhow.

It seemed like some of them wanted to squash all originality and creativity out of me. They wanted me to "conform", I couldn't if I wanted to.  All curiosity was to be suppressed. I got this repressed feeling like I was trying to be someone I really wasn't when I went to church. Even my desire to explore scripture in depth in the last church was not welcomed. Uniqueness was not tolerated. The pastors always seemed irritated by anything of depth being discussed. My husband just being who he was, offended the last one at every turn.

Sometimes I got the feeling with some Christians, they were trying to fit this idea of what they think a "Christian" should talk about, dress like and act like. It was like they had this idea in their head, and the churches definitely promoted this. Some came across as insincere, speak Christianese. Some phrases bored me like "Bless your heart" and "The Lord has placed it on my heart to tell you..." and worried me that they were just used as silencing and control mechanisms. 

 Culturally I didn't know the "script" or the way of life, I could never afford or emulate, and I faltered massively. While the first church was nice, my eyes didn't really open about how they saw me until later. In the other churches, I was this weirdo, they put up with. My clothes were different too. My husband refused to wear a suit to IFB church like the other men wore and didn't even own one that still fit, well you get the idea. Intellectually I seem to piss most of them off. I imagined deep conversations, close fellowship, and had dreams about having a close "church family".  In the boat pastor's church , they did help some and seemed to care, that was very rare and short-lived. I would learn that church closed from severe in-fighting that Aspie me was not privy to.

I have had some negative thoughts about the Christian world lately that have bothered me.  The perfect storm of spiritual abuse, the present political situation and many unanswered prayers has had me questioning God and religion quite a bit. If my relationship with God is to last, I cannot love an authoritarian God that just seeks to punish and hurt me, who I am afraid of in a bad way. My leaving fundamentalism has affected my life, and sometimes I wonder if fundamentalism was attractive to me because of my abuse history. 

 I worry I became a Christian in the first place via fear of death. Everyone here has read my tales of medical woes where my lungs almost wiped me out and the multiple bouts of sepsis almost ended my life very early. I was a full blown atheist, UU and a "hellbound" pagan, agnostic and atheist by the age of 17.  I had "deconverted" from Catholicism in my early teens.

 I became born again in my mid 30s, the Bible and God's Word really did give me solace when I was very sick. I wanted to find meaning and hope in life, truth and God. I was a strong seeker, I had spent over a decade reading and studying religions. When I was in college majoring in art education, I had a dual education at the same time.  Whenever I had a spare minute, hanging out on the top floor of the college library, I read every book I could find on the religions of the world. I read everything from the Koran to the Egyptian Book of the Dead to Kabbalah writings to the Bible. My seeking was very important to my life. My husband told me when he met me, my fascination with religion intrigued him, and that normal girls didn't think about such deep issues and he liked that about me.

I still consider myself a Christian, but I fit less and less in the mainstream Christian world.I don't want to follow the Rick Warrens of the world with their globalist ideals, that really seem to be just colonialism under a Christian mask, or the "Be positive set" who tell me God has a plan for my life when everything seems to be crumbling, or the Republican world where I am supposed to believe that richer people are "better people".  It's not working for me. I don't fit in the churches, but I know being a Christian has made me feel very alone. A lot of other Christian people are nice people don't get me wrong, but when it comes to me fitting in with them, its like chalk and cheese. I have an edge to me, most will never understand.

[source]

The Christian world for disabled people can be a very dangerous place. Religionists can make hash of disabled people's minds. They will tell us things like standing up for rights is for the evil left, and that are our health problems have risen from some kind of wickedness. In my case there will be no returning to church outside of some government funded charity and a fiction book club, I can't take it anymore. People in my situation who have faced abuse, or who have serious disabilities, or poverty problems, it's a feeding frenzy. The years of pity, false promises, demands for self improvement, conformity and the rest have just worn me out. There's too many who will run victory laps on your head just to show you off, as a broken down human with their derision. Sadly for religious narcissists, stressed, frazzled and frightened people are easier to control, the intellectual repression and denial of the true human conditions and emotions, got beyond my toleration long ago. What purpose is there for me to be in a place where I am told to constant repress my true feelings all the time? I had enough of that within my family.

Even in the non prosperity gospel churches, there is always that belief that God is blessing those whose lives are going well, and if life is going badly well that must mean God does not have favor on you or you are out of obedience or as my spiritual abusing deliverance minister told me, that I must be cursed. Can God handle my real thoughts, emotions and intellectual curiosity even if so many in the churches could not?

I believe religion is a often control matrix. I followed the path of being one of those Christians outside the system, long ago, but then I noticed I was so outside the religious reservation, I was standing outside alone. I wanted there to be a loving God you see, and still do but where is the love in all this control and threatened "beat-downs"? Being a broken down, disabled person in USA society with low-income, I don't need God's representatives beating me up too.

Spiritual seeking and intellectual inquiry, isn't very welcomed in a lot of Christian circles. Even having a discussion disputing whether the Bible speaks of "sheol" and the "grave" instead of a conscious burning eternal torment in hell, got me in trouble with some Christians online. Hell has always been a sticking point to me. At least I found some who questioned these ideas.

One thing that bothered me in the IFB, they always seemed to want us afraid. Afraid of the Apocalypse, afraid of the new world order- I do still believe a cadre of uber wealthy people do abuse a lot of power, afraid of the liberals, afraid of the world blowing up, afraid of the nuclear war. Afraid of going to hell--the big one---if you fall away and don't do God's bidding [to the legalistic ones] you will be burnt like a piece of toast on a spit.

Choose at random any political or news website for evangelical Christians, and notice how fear runs the show. Fear and control, and authoritarianism to the hilt. Trump will save us! "We need more prisons" the evangelicals demand while at the same time writing scary conspiracy stuff about how all the FEMA Camps will round us up. They don't realize how they contradict themselves, after all Jesus got put on the cross at the behest of a overweening state so their worship of power, is even more sickening. The fact most of the churches support our political oppressors, says something. They bow before the eugenics, racists, and the world caste system. If you don't kneel to this power, you are considered a heretic too. The fact the majority are following blindly after Trump, and they don't care if you question the left too. This is enough to disenfranchise many from the evangelical and Christian world. They are so afraid they chose the biggest baddest abusers and sociopaths. There's probably many Christians who see through the political lies, running for the church exits now. These recent events have me rethinking a lot about this world and how God is presented in the Christian world and how religion is used for fear and control.

I had enough to worry about from my own body and trying to stay off the streets, I think I got tired. And how do I explain the disappointment? Scripture promised me loving fellowship and kind hands to pray over me when I was sick. What did I get? Loneliness, and mean churches that made me more afraid and added to my abuse and trauma. Judgment.

[notice how you get abused and rejected and you are the demonized one instead of the abusers?]

I wrote here about my spiritual abuse at the hands of a deliverance ministry. I encountered a spiritual abuser who told me because I was so sick, and had a huge body because I had been cursed. She said it was causing my poverty and other problems. In the IFB, I had been taught I had to be holy or I would not have God's blessings. Deliverance was not frowned upon in the IFB but was promoted to a degree. Deliverance Ministries are total poison. She told me I would die, soon if I was not delivered. I am embarrassed to even have fallen for this crap, and while I thought she was a bit weird, I thought what harm can more prayer do?  So I did the deliverance prayers etc, but she got weirder and weirder and more abusive. She tried to get me to go to her house out of state and stay with her, I refused.  I found out later, from what people wrote online, she had actually manipulated some to go to her house and did more emotional damage to them seeking power and control. I cut her off, as she gave me her "curse" talk. I was done. The goal posts were always moving. I hung up the phone and cut her off for good.

[hereditary Illness? I guess I'm screwed]

In Christianity, I felt like nothing was ever good enough. I may have erred myself in seeking after a doctrinal purity, though I wasn't the type to abuse anyone or boss them around or act like the Church Lady on SNL. I was told God was not blessing me due to my disobedience and rebellion. I was rebuked for keeping so many non-Christian friends and told it was my bad example that was keeping my husband from being saved. I was told both directly and indirectly that God had given me health problems due to my wickedness. I was told in only good Republicans with nice homes and big families counted. Even the "saved by grace" crowd, makes constant holiness demands. I got tired.

My most healthy approach to life, may be just holding on to the ideals that led me to Christianity in the first place but I can't have anything to do with the mainstream or evangelical Christian world anymore.. I already spent over 12 years in the very liberal Unitarian Universalist Association, which by the way is a place many seekers end up.

Religion for me became a bad thing. I got tired of being made afraid. The goal posts were always moving. The promises for my life never turned out. My own prayer life has become shambles, as I feel like I am speaking to empty space and God does not answer.  I realize now that my abusive background has impacted my religious yearnings, and my own relationship with God. With God, I got into this mode of being the endless "pleaser", in my mind wrongly or rightly He became just another narcissist that I was never "good enough for". So many of His representatives focused on my shortcomings, I got burned out.

[spiritual abuse]

I care about love, justice and freedom. Maybe God will have mercy for that. A lot of the Christian world scares me and with the march of Trump and his men, the blatant growing brutality in the mainstream evangelical and Dominionist world is making itself known. Some of the Christians will claim those against the right are for the "natural order", they will teach us false obedience while twisting Romans 13. They stress obedience and authority and they worship a "god" in my own mind that has grown more brutal. The worship of power and the uber rich, goes with their slavish devotion to the hierarchical political and religious system. They are the Pharisees of the modern day.

Catholicism,anxiety, depression and coming out of a narcissistic abusive household was a very, very bad mix. Try getting slapped around eating a bologna sandwich during Lent because it's Friday in March and you forgot. It was just freaking psychotic. Beatings, screaming, cussing and then Mass and religious displays, I know all of this formed some weird stuff in my mind. When I became an atheist as a young person, I was called a heathen and condemned. I was HATED for not conforming and that has affected me lifelong. You know life has gone crazy when your mother finds an atheist/freethought/humanist pamphlet in your college book bag, and chases you through the house to hit you. The false piety among all the evil, was a joke. Why would I put up with Christians trying to make me conform and silencing me now when I have put up with some much spiritual abuse earlier?  The family is long gone due to my no contact, but I have no interest in people who will condemn me for inquiry and my own beliefs.

I do wonder if my spiritual and other abuse played a role in me in me going into fundamentalist Christianity. I know I was attracted to a world that seemed more special and holy then this one, and imagined loving and caring people who lived out their values, instead of people wearing masks and making demands. There has to be some conflation with my going no contact from abusers several years ago, and questioning some spiritual and religions edicts and taking a look at my religious journey. 

I have realized a la Paul Walker, I have a very unhealthy fawn, flight or freeze approach to God.  As I got deeper into fundamentalist Christianity, I realized there were overlaps with my childhood abuse and my severe anxiety disorders and C-PTSD [I was diagnosed with PTSD by several therapists in my past]. I don't know where the future lies with my relationship with God and still consider myself a Christian now, although I am in a place of examination and doubt, but I know I can't do the fundamentalist fear thing anymore. I don't know if my faith will survive and I will remain an alternative "out of the church system" Christian or what the future will hold.

 I have had troubling thoughts about God seeming like one of my abusers, with threats of hell for those who refuse to do His bidding, and demands for perfection and holiness.  Even in the salvation by grace system, there still remain expectations of holiness and freedom from sin. I was never loved by my parents and I do not feel loved by God right now, some may say this is due to my own sin, but those kind of people I need to avoid right now, if I am to find God's love once again. There is an abuse trap people can fall into where they seek to "please" God in finding that worthiness their families denied them. Legions of demanding "church ladies" who promised me good health, miracles and more based on "performance", were just a continuation of my earlier abuse in life for "not being enough". Religion and churches can prey on broken people who seek wholeness, but some of them destroy us more and become proxies for our former abusers.

As a past scapegoat, I have been refusing all abuse in my life. This means doing away with direct and indirect spiritual abuse too. This has changed the religious terrain. It has taken me out of fundamentalism. All the bowing and scraping and saying "Please love me", and "seeking approval", I ditched all the abusers I was "never good enough for" and is this spilling out to God? It definitely spilled out to the IFB. So wonder I got the idea that life was all about performance and following rules. So I fell for the idea of religious rules outlining a certainty, trying so desperate HARD to obtain a what was deemed a "PROPER" life and trying to find a place to "fit in" and I never found it.

The biblical Tribulation is no big deal when I had my fear up to the gills in the PTSD horror house I grew up in and took with me into adulthood. I can't have a good relationship with God when I see Him the same as my abusers where nothing is ever good enough and I wonder why my life has been left in the ditch. I do know this, I can't believe in a cruel "god" anymore. I'm out of the IFB forever. I'm done with gaslighting, mindcontrol and being told what to think and feel anymore. It is time to recover from bad religion.

Update: I deconverted in 2017 and no longer consider myself a Christian. I returned to the UU and am a far happier person. Changing my religion changed my life for far better. I am glad I escaped the gaslighting and trauma programming mill.

Less Food Makes My Diabetes Worse

That's not the way it's supposed to work right?
So wonder I am confused.

I ate this big dinner with some scrambled eggs, Bob Evans natural sausage, home made biscuits, and some canned fruit, which by all accounts is supposed to be a "naughty" meal for a fat person and got the lowest blood sugar in a month the next morning. Yesterday for dinner, I ate a baked pork chop and a half and a cut up tomato,a peach, some pasta and got a good one this morning.

Our food budget was cut down to nothing for a time. I was eating nothing but hardboiled eggs, or egg sandwiches, old apples and cheap salami or turkey sandwiches. There was some carrot sticks and green peppers in the mix too. We had some normal dinners but food was more limited. My body seems to say, "Not enough food, screw you!" My blood sugars were up by 20 points.

Of course the body never loses weight on less calories either. All the advice they give does not work, and I try to follow what I can. Diabetes is weird, because they tell me this stuff that is "supposed to work" and it doesn't. I even have noticed if I eat "too few carbs" the sugars skyrocket. It is like a science project from hell. Oh a lot of meat or protein, and the sugars like that.

Obesity Rates Per County in the USA

Obesity Rates per county in the USA Map

All the wealthier counties in my state have far lower obesity rates, and the wealthiest county has the lowest obesity rate out of all of them. This map could almost translate into a MONEY-MAP of the United States. The  dark green counties are the least fattest ones and also the wealthier ones. One can note that the red counties, the fattest ones, are in the most poor areas of the country. Not being able to afford good food does make you more fat.

False Religious Displays

Saw this online, definitely says a lot. Trump keeps parading the false preachers out. That's a couple giant rocks on those hands. How can people be fooled by this garbage? I have another online friend now refusing to talk to me because I have come out against Trump. It hurts. Why do they feel so threatened by other opinions?

It makes me sick how many Christians are fooled by this guy. Lately considering how authoritarianism in Christianity has married itself to false politics of oppression, really has brought me some angst. I haven't been in a church in a couple years but at least where I live, the pro-war rallies and false patriotism sickened me. I do feel more disenfranchised from the evangelical world, and these things do have a spiritual effect. When I try to talk to these Trump-loving Christians and explain to them, that Republicans are threatening my very life with their Medicare and other cuts, they don't care. It's like they want me to go die for the sake of the Republic or the Millionaires or the Social Darwinists.

It is good the Republican bill to destroy Medicare and Medicaid has failed, but then the creeps may still try and push it through again.

Ableism and the ACON: Narcissists and the Disabled

Ableism is a real thing.

From the above: "A set of practices and beliefs that assign inferior value [worth] to people who have developmental, emotional, physical or psychiatric disabilities." 
  In the old days, if you were different, or had disabilities, you would get shoved away into an institution, and hidden away from society. Some doctors let the visibly disabled die at birth with family acceptance.  There were disabled people locked away in basements and attics, and those who even lost their lives. Shunning for the disabled was the societal norm.

Disabled people were seen as those to be pitied and separated from regular society or displayed for entertainment. Even today the disabled are discriminated against and we are plagued with inspiration porn articles where the only "worthy" disabled person is someone who has achieved super-star status, that is another form of the discrimination.

If I lived 50-75 years ago, my fate very well could have been that as a circus fat lady with no other way to gain income in the days before Social Security. Families did lock away and seek to "control" and "hide" their disabled family members. This would have been worse with narcissistic families and those focused on appearances.
 
Nightmare visions of places like Willowbrook go through one's head and the mental wards especially from the 1950s.   There's been a few positive changes in society for the disabled,but I believe these things are regressing, especially under the present Republican administration who has shown it's utter heartlessness towards the disabled. England with it's new austerity plans has followed America in the new "hate on the disabled" schemes. Attitudes seem to be changing to be like the days of old. Inclusion for the disabled is lessening.

As our society grows more narcissistic, this means empathy and inclusion for the disabled is dropping. Hate crimes against the disabled are increasing. I have noticed out and out overt hatred for the disabled becoming "acceptable".  Franklin D. Roosevelt raised awareness for the disabled and things changed until the ADA was passed in 1990 but I believe attitudes today are regressing. The disabled are now seen as "burdens", financially and otherwise.

 In American Christianity where the prosperity gospel has infused like a sickening poison, and positive thinking in secular society has blossomed, those who are disabled are seen as "God's punished, and cursed, not living and eating right, not trying hard enough and not having positive enough thoughts" Many of the disabled have been told they lack the "right mental attitudes" and that they became disabled or got sick from personal failings or inner wickedness. Remember in narcissistic families if something bad happens to you, it's always your fault and sadly this is true in American society at large! These attitudes are increasing the ableism.

Republicans have eagerly embraced Trump and Paul Ryan's Nazi-like scapegoating of the disabled as cost-cutting efforts to supposedly spare them high taxes. The employment world outside of the few more liberal non-profits, have firmly shut the door even on those with mild to moderate health problems to save on health care costs, rather then including more of the visibly disabled who are able to work.We are in a climate now where hatred for the disabled is shouted from the news everyday. Has anyone noticed that a multitude of other national problems have been ignored for shoveling the ill, disabled and old into the ditch?

Around five years ago, I started attending disability network meetings and having a disability advocate become part of my life. This week, I have joined the Facebook group for ADAPT and plan to find out where the closest chapter is. The disability advocate is a professional in my area that deals with disability discrimination. I had no personal case to bring but I started going to seminars on disability rights and posting about these things. It was important that my education about disability rights began. This was a huge part of my healing as I had been shamed, blamed and put down so long for my physical and emotional differences.

 Disability rights showed me a way out. I didn't have to live my life with my head bent down for not being "normal" and not fitting in. I could make something of my life even without employment and being on Social Security. My life was as worthy as any other human beings. I also felt motivated to help other disabled people. As I wrote before my being diagnosed with a rare fat disorder Lipedema stage IV was a vindication of years worth of pain and turmoil. When I told my sociopathic mother about this diagnosis, her response was:

"Don't know what you want as a response as you will perceive it to say something negative from me, nor will you believe anything I say anyway."

That was my last letter to her.

My disabilities assigned me inferior worth within my family. This was like a double-barreled shot gun levied at my heart and soul. Scapegoating is bad enough but then imagine yourself a scapegoat where there is very little acceptance or normality in society. Healing comes from that escape and entering "normal world" and gaining confidence in a rewarding career and a new found family of creation, this can be far harder for someone who is disabled. The horizons that exist for a young and fit ACON who escapes are far more narrowed down for a disabled person. Society can replicate one's family's abuse via discrimination against the disabled that is so much apart of our society.  I believe the damage of being scapegoated in a narcissistic family while being disabled, can be among the worse abuse anyone can suffer.

There should be a movement to protect the disabled from the narcissists. Disabled children born into narcissistic or sociopath families are standing in the firing line. Some are abused and exploited for narcissistic supply as parents play Manchausen by Proxy games or play "woe is me" martyrs gaining attention through their sick or disabled child. Many disabled children are neglected or don't have physical and other needs met. Some have medical and other needed equipment taken away such as computers, canes for the blind, hearing aids and more.  Public school can give out IEP plans and provide somewhat of a barrier, but there's always homeschooling now to hide abuse of a child away. I used to support homeschooling but don't anymore as I saw many with abusive parents using it to hide them away or control them. Instead of helping a child acquire the best education and independence they can, the engulfers control, and the ignorers exploit or abuse.

Medical neglect is a given too. Physical problems are ignored, children and teens aren't taken to doctors.  Doctors are lied to with gaslighing:"Don't take that child seriously, she's a hypochondriac.", or "There's really nothing wrong with him or her." For the narcissist, asthma attacks are just not being able to cope and throwing up after every meal is rebellion. Narcissists especially deny, seek to hide and ignore the emotional pain and conditions they often cause. Teens with severe depression, and anxiety disorders from all the abuse, are denied counseling and other treatment and shamed. This creates some disabled people and worsens disabilities and functionality for others. Some may even lose their lives.

Sadly many young severely disabled people especially the wheelchair bound can even today be put away in institutions or nursing homes. They can be denied education even with normal and above average IQs.  It is very difficult to find assisted living programs or transitional ones that can provide real independence out of the clutches of a narcissistic family.  Futures can be destroyed, when some outside help is needed but kept away. Finding resources is very difficult. I have tried to do this for other severely disabled people. "Family first" nonsense pushed by the professional class, and family promoted as caretakers by states wanting to save money also is another fence binding the disabled up. "Let your mother take care of you!" is what many of these types say imaging a mother with hot soup and loving words, when the reality is you know the stress of living with narcopath would kill you faster then your health problems.

 False ideas about family create a hell on earth for many disabled people who are adult children of narcissists as well. Many assume everyone has a family to rescue them. There's many disabled people told to turn to relatives for help after a surgical procedure, or for help in cleaning they can't do. Normal society somehow pictures every disabled person as having a loving family like the Waltons. Maybe this is why getting aides is so difficult. I've known disabled friends seeking help who long ago had to go no contact and were refused help by any relatives, told by social workers and others to go to "their family". Not everyone has one. With Republicans in power, now on full attack for waiver programs and independent living, the disabled are even more vulnerable, and disabled people with narcissistic and sociopathic families are even more so.
 
Those with psychiatric diagnoses who have had their guardianships taken away, can have narcissistic family members making decisions for them into their late adulthoods even taking away an independent apartment for one scapegoated family member. They can stick them in a group home far away from their friends. While guardianships can at times be necessary for those truly a danger to themselves or others, they are open for abuse by narcissists. Aunt Scapegoat had her guardianship taken away and remained under full control to the day she died.

Many narcissists will play games with disability checks, seizing even young adult children's finances claiming they "can't handle their own finances". Perhaps in some cases this is true, but I believe this is definitely abused, and the disabled aren't the first ones believed by the professional class but their narcissistic parents who may appear as pillars as society and "oh so concerned about their child". The helicopter parents can extend the years of control. Many narcissists and sociopaths, especially wealthy ones, who hold much more political power and status then their fixed income son or daughter, can definitely and easily manipulate and gaslight their way into gaining control over young adults, or even older adults. Narcs know how to play the game to get someone labeled "mentally incompetent". Narcissists in my family have managed this at least twice.

 A little bit of hoarding in my Aunt Scapegoat's case which I think had more to do with severe fatigue and being on dialysis, was her vulnerability. My mother had her "in" and with her money and know-how and lies, and pretending to care, she wiggled her way in. The state not wanting to deal with the expense of third party guardians or trustees, is more then willing to believe their lies.

Parents have been given too much power over their children and adult children in need of help. Some young adult children who are severely disabled and want to break away will face financial and other barriers. Social workers are often on the weed out plan. What do I mean by the weed out plan? They will try to send you away unless you are the most desperate or do the loudest appeal, because they have case loads they want to lighten, and budgets they want to save. Charismatic narcissists who are willing to help with the "burdens" are embraced with eager glee.
 
Disabled people especially are vulnerable to narcissists. My parents made their intentions to shove me away into some kind of institution known, if not for my good grades and quiet nature at school,I believe they would have succeeded. What if I had some severe Aspie melt-downs at school? My fate could have easily been being locked away in some institution. My life 50 years ago displaying too many differences and before the days of disability rights and two doctors required to sign off on any forced mental ward visits definitely could have gone completely different. However even today narcissists have gaslighted and abused adult and teen children into psych wards and gotten psychiatrists and other medical professionals to deem the "child" the problem instead of the sociopath abusing them into C-PTSD and nervous break-downs.

Disabled people face a lot of abuse, according to some studies, people with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to be abused. Power dynamics does influence things in this society. Those with money, and power can bulldoze people even in court. Those who depend on caretakers, may be afraid to speak up against them if they are being abused. They fear not being fed, not getting needed medicine, baths, transportation and more. People who are developmentally disabled are less likely to even understand abuse and may accept things as normal which are anything but, a deaf person may have barriers in communicating to get help and or to escape, and others may have medication problems. With narcissistic parents, some may even lie about conditions that are treatable or not even get treatment that could bring normalcy back to a child's life. Imagine a child not having glaucoma treated allowed to go blind, or a child with severe ear infections allowed to go deaf.

Disabled people are very vulnerable in this society.  I fear being put away into a nursing home or a group home if I lose my husband. There isn't anyone to help me but him in my life. Some long distance friends help as they can and I've gotten rides from a couple friends in town, but for day to day care, he's it. In my case, as long as my mind and brain still work, I have enough legal know-how to fight in a court room. One reason I decided to remain in my present community is a health program I qualify for in about 5 years to keep older people independent and out of nursing homes. It is half a mile from my apartment. Because my conditions are progressive, even if I manage to get more weight off, I am weakening with age, and know this program will be necessary. Sometimes one must be realistic about their future.

 This is a scary world not to have a family in especially if you are a disabled person. One's need for a loving and caring family is even stronger.  Having a toxic family is even worse. Mine often tried to endanger my health forcing me to travel during times when my lungs could not stand up to the pressures. They did not care, they only cared about themselves. My needs meant nothing to them. This is a way that many disabled people can be put in danger. Those who cannot defend themselves or lack strong enough boundaries to put their own survival first, can be put into danger. ACONS in general must learn the art of self-care once they are no contact and healing from narcissists but this is even more imperative for the disabled ACON.

The ruined and denied physical needs and for independence among disabled ACONs is bad enough but then there is the emotional affects of a family that has deemed you  "unworthy" a "freak", or a "burden", the emotional pain can be that much worse. One has to be even more careful of a self-loathing that can take root, not only from emotional abuse but from low status and being deemed unworthy in society itself.  Our society sadly will back up many negative messages that a disabled ACON has received from an abusive family.

During the last few years, when I was removing narcissists from my life, including the ex-friend who told me my Aspergers and weight embarrassed her, it  was one of those pivotal moments. I had been diagnosed with Lipedema by then too and she knew about it. There were times I truly struggled, wondering why I have been born into this body and why did I "deserve" such a life when it seemed at times, I did not deserve anyone's love or respect. Disability can really be a challenge, and this is something that can launch many people into a downward spiral. The hatred shown a disabled person by their families, is often repeated in society. This too was an area where delving into disability rights and exploring the rights and dignity of every person saved me from the fate of what is called internalized oppression.


Internalized Oppression:
"When people are targeted, discriminated against, or oppressed over a period of time, they often internalize (believe and make part of their self-image – their internal view of themselves) the myths and misinformation that society communicates to them about their group."

I have confronted my own internalized oppression, which formed a toxic stew with the narcissistic abuse. I was insulted really badly once online, I have a thick skin, come on writing about being 500lbs doesn't earn total love in American society. I'm used to it by now. But this time, it bugged me.  It was one of those fat hatred boards, and someone mocked me for saying I was adopted and one wrote, "She ate her genetics.". Those people were complete assholes, but this insult gave me food for though, how could someone have so many things wrong with them? Why did happen? The catfish once mocked me saying, "Maybe you were a product of incest, and that's why you have so many things physically wrong with you". I was able to confront these things and not let them lead to self hatred, because all these people were doing was shaming me for having too many health problems.  Now is not the time to internalize their complete and utter garbage.

ACONS in general already have to find the strength inside to not believe the endless false messages given to them by their abusers, but for the disabled this is complicated, because they not only have to learn to screen out the evil of their narcissists, they have to add endless garbage piles from society itself. We have to fight the internalized oppression where the narcissists and sociopaths succeed in making us feel less worthy for being disabled.

It is strange to be out in the world wishing one had a normal body, and there is a depth of pain, when one's own body betrayed one as much as one's own "family". I was rejected pretty early on, and while when I appeared more normal, the undiagnosed Aspergers floated this boat, there was also the fact I was "darker" in skin color, and there was implicit racism among my family as I remember all the self congratulatory worship of the babies who were more "blonde". I was not only the proverbial would be redheaded bastard step child, but the "too dark" child who did not fit in. My mother used to try and scrub "the dark" off, which in my case included quite a bit of very early acanthosis nigricans from my burgeoning endocrine disorders. I would be hit and yelled at for having dark knees, and elbows and "you're so dirty" [those areas were dark from what color I was too which was far darker then her].

Racism is rooted in the same muck as ableism, just another way to make people "the other" and discount and invalidate them. 

It occurred to me, some time ago, that my mother refused to be seen in public with me from the time of my severe weight gain [1995-1996] onward to the day I went no contact.  She refused to invite me to any family functions at restaurants and/or at public venues. She even suggested a park I could not walk to the area where the event was being held for one family reunion. She held her wedding that had many work friends at it in early January, knowing without a doubt I would be housebound that time of year. I remember suspecting this at the time, but being in the fog, remained in deep denial.

 Imagine a mother who avoids being seen in public to the point of telling me not to go into the gas station with her the one time we are together in a car, for more then 20 years. Her embarrassment and disgust would be more then apparent. Once when I went to a party she didn't invite me to but invited a load of her office friends and other family members too, I went uninvited, she ignored me the entire time and pretended I was not there. Her hatred for my body was extreme. This took the scapegoating up a few notches, not only was I hated by my mother for who I was emotionally but also physically. I was a Quasimodo to be hidden away.

Her view of me filtered through the entire family. I was hated for being fat, for looking different, my deafness ignored with no caring if I could hear and put down for being too tall and big, it was strange when I looked back through family photos and how no one resembled me, everyone was so much smaller, so much thinner, so differently shaped. What did I have in common with first cousins who were even thin for average people and had no body qualms at all, in size 2 Bikinis? Blondes and light brown hair people predominated,while I had almost black hair.

Besides the stuff related to skin color,  I realized the depths of my rejection for health problems and looking different. My sister avoided being seen in public with me as well, and refused all invites for meals out to lunch even in my own town at places where people were used to me. I never was allowed to meet anyone's friends. No accommodations were ever made for me, every relative bought two story homes, knowing I could not do stairs years before the purchase. Maybe that's too much to ask, I can accept that, you can't decide what kind of house people buy, but it's something I noticed. My sister's house had this double staircase with high ceilings the one time I saw it, I knew seeing the upstairs would be an impossibility for life. You all have heard about the proverbial family annual meeting always held at the coldest time of the year, banning me by default. All of my health problems which I allowed to show, because my general policy was to hide as much weakness as possible, were viewed with disgust, disdain, and annoyance.

She told everyone I was "lazy" and "just laid around" all day, this view showed up multiple times, among multiple relatives, who always remarked how busy they were, the few times I would contact them. The family story became that I was a malingerer who "made things up". I hid being diabetic from every relative except two to the day of no contact. This is not uncommon. I have seen people with severe genetic and other disorders like Muscular Dystrophy told by family members, "It's all in your head." and if you "tried hard enough" you wouldn't be disabled. The disabled are told by narcissistic families they are inferior and then this message can be backed up by society. 

Social isolation and ostracism is a problem for many disabled people. There can be a lot of isolation. I'm housebound a lot but I have known people with my disorders who haven't been able to leave the house in a year.  Many people avoid "sick" people because we remind them of their own vulnerabilities and of death. One old friend I now suspected to on the narcissistic end of things in my old town actually told me to my face, "It's hard being friends with you because you look like you will die soon." Back then my severe COPD was not being treated properly and yes these problems showed, but this friend showed little support, like the one to come later.  These things impact the disabled. There's many a time, for years, I woke in tears, sick with some problem or other, like this week's leg infection, and have thought, "Even my own family doesn't love me, and society doesn't either." This is the kind of stuff when married together that can mess people up.

 We are left out of the social weave and warp of society. I manage a few hanger-on activities like book-clubs and I have a husband to do a few things with, but I know I am not an "insider"when it comes to life. I look too different, I am too different, and sadly even on the days when you manage to forget, there will be some person to remind you how you "don't fit in". Some fortunate people manage to find niches in decent drop centers, unlike my own and other programs, but those programs are rare. I always wondered why there were senior centers for the elderly and so little socialization programs for the younger disabled and why aren't the middle aged disabled allowed to join senior centers? We are retired too, just at a younger age.

For the disabled, one huge societal burden is this picture of us being "useless eaters" and "non-productive". It is sickening that human beings have such a view, but many do. They are total utilitarians and mind-slaves to the money-masters who judge every cog by their worth to the economy. Inside as I struggle with some worse health, when I am sick and in bed all day, there's a little voice shouting in my head left over from the narcs, saying "You are so lazy!"  Society judges human worth by production especially Capitalist American society. Even with happiness today as a contest, it's about spending yourself into a state of worthiness.


Writing blogs, volunteer work in the past, and doing art work among many isn't considered productive enough. If you don't have a job and pay taxes, they tell you indirectly you are "life unworthy of life" as the Nazis used to put it. Republicans are spreading a message through our society that all disabled people are "deadbeats" who are "irresponsible", and are disabled via poor choices, such as lack of education and immorality. This is why even the evangelical churches have not stood against the growing outcry and cuts against the disabled. They all believe the disabled inside are "lessers". If Republicans actually presented other options for the disabled like more inclusive job programs and accommodations for the disabled then they would not be evil hypocrites. It has nothing to do with saving money and more about kicking a scapegoated class in the face. They do it because they get away with it.  On social media, you see them complain about "those who want a free ride."and  "mooches". 

What am I to think of relatives who believed in their Tea Party way I was supposed to go die in the gutter too? They ranted and raved against disability and government help even as Aunt Scapegoat got her three times a week dialysis treatments she could never have afforded on her own without government help. They certainly weren't going to pay for it.

I think many of these types would rather we did not exist, they want to shun and exclude us into literal non-existence. This happens in the narcissistic families too. Some keep just enough contact to keep us in line. My life changed more emotionally then physically after I went no contact. They really weren't a part of my life to begin with. Disabled people definitely have become a scapegoated group, it is far easier for the powers that be to blame the disabled for all the financial crises instead of the 4.8 billion spent on war, and people go along with it.

Disabled people too are only included only as much as they are told that they must be fixed. I dealt with this issue with the "Project Friends" article. I faced facts, that I could not accept so many "Fix-It's in my life, where I was told I was not acceptable whatsoever in my present condition. Disabled people worldwide, are told, they will be acceptable the day they are "fixed", "cured", religion can be another battering ram, as the disabled are promised miracles. Faith healing in the religious realm says God will grant the miracle to deem you worthy. I faced this with the spiritual abuser. Benny Hinn and others do it on a more overt level but even your mainstream church will tell you believe and wait for "someday" when you are healed. The sad thing is you want to live today and not wait for some extraordinary day in the future.

Secular healing mandates you drum yourself into every brick wall, with constant fixing and self improvement as your main daily endeavor, I see this with the constant focus on special Diets in the Lipedema world. "Keto will save us now and makes us thin! Special Liposcution will make us thin like everyone else!" Americans are obsessed with perfection and being fixed, it has kept the consumerist society humming. Now imagine being disabled in this milieu, and being told your entire life must be dedicated to fixing your body that grows older and more broken with every year. It's like being told to put a finger in a dam, there is also the spiritual destruction inside...."Never good enough, Never good enough"....

Imagine people with even more serious disabilities being fed this garbage day in and day out. The chemically depressed are told they can conquer depression with a stronger will. The wheelchair bound are told exercise your way out.  Everyone with all disabilities is told enough positive thinking will rescue them.

Queen Spider was obsessed with me being "fixed" even though her medical neglect helped to lead me to the place of my present disability. . She was too lazy to actually "do" anything to seek out medical intervention or in helping me get hearing aids, or things I had to learn to do for myself as an adult, but there too, any love or acceptability was taken away for the "day" I may fit in and be "fixed". What weight would have been low enough? I was still hated at 180 as I was at 680 but that too was like a carrot being held out. Escaping this trap of not being enough for her, and not being enough for people I encountered in life, was a big deal for me. Now when people start that "fix-it" crap, I walk.

Eugenics is back in American society in full force.  When societies turn fascist, life turns into hell for the disabled. So few get that racist and disability eugenics are running a lot of the present Republican show. They truly believe the rich are rich because they are physically and genetically superior. They truly believe the disabled are inferior specimens.They put people into categories via race, disabilities and other facts as inferior or superior and plan policy accordingly. There is no human mercy in this system of allocation.

"But eugenics, though discredited, has never been abandoned. In fact, the most powerful people in America appear to enthusiastically embrace the idea that humans can be divided into inherently superior and inferior specimens and treated accordingly. “You have to be born lucky,” President Donald Trump told Oprah Winfrey in 1988, “in the sense that you have to have the right genes.” His biographer Michael D’Antonio explained to Frontline that Trump and his family subscribe “to a racehorse theory of human development. They believe that there are superior people and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring.”

 Obesity and eugenics works together hand in hand, as the very rich can afford the organic food where the weight stays away and obesity has been made into a class marker for the would be culling. Already this culling has happened when it comes to the work world where to be obese over a certain level cuts one out of employment. The narcissists definitely seek for the disabled to be cut more from society.

My own family had that same Nazi uber alles crap where the thinner and healthier were elevated.  Those considered too sick and fat,or who could not or did not procreate were deemed "undesirables" to not be invested in, and to be cut from the gene pool. I often say the macro affects the micro, and these attitudes are filtering down to families.  The hatred for the disabled is a growing sign of narcissism and sociopathy in our society.

For those of us who have stared down the double-barreled shot gun of narcissism and disability, its time to stand for our dignity and our rights, and to realize the evil of what happened to us. We must form our self identities outside the domain of the wicked. The disabled definitely need protection from narcissists as well.  We must stand up against ableism and escape the trap of internalized oppression.


Centers for Independent Living

Abuse of Persons Who are Disabled

Printmaking

This video brings back memories when I took printmaking in college. I had an "Etching" and "Intalgio" printmaking class during my art education studies in college.It was really fun. In my case I wore googles while dipping the plates in acid. It was a lot of work, but always found that class very memorable.

Here is one of my old prints:

Those Recipe Videos on Facebook

Ever watch those recipe videos on Facebook or elsewhere? I always wonder about those things, because the recipes seem as fattening as possible. When it comes to cheese which I actually went 10 years without eating until I discovered the miracle of Lactase Milk making lactase intolerant me able to digest it, too much of a good thing seems kind of gross. It's an interesting societal trend that people love these videos that seem to include as much cheese as possible and a whole stick of butter to be melted in the pot. At least the low fat thing has been proven to make for fatter people but then going to the other extreme seems a bit unwise. This recipe is kind of the epitome of what I am talking about. I have eaten some foods like macaroni salad and ate a crispy chicken sandwich today but it's like something is weird with these recipes where they are made to be as fattening as possible.Macaroni and cheese is rich enough, why does it need a dough topping and endless slices of cheese surrounding it? The bacon craze lasted for some time too.

Losing Weight With AYDS Candy

Even back then they were trying to sell weight loss via sweets. That always bugged me when I went to Weight Watcher meetings and most of the foods they sold were all sweets, candy this and that. It was strange. I guess no one expected the fat people to desire savory food over sweets. This "diet" candy had a very unfortunate name, and I wonder if that is why they went out of business in the early 1980s.