The Problem Many of us found that we had several characteristics in common as a result of being brought up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional household. We had come to feel isolated and uneasy with other people, especially authority figures. To protect ourselves, we became people-pleasers, even though we lost our own identities in the […]
Growing Up in an Alcoholic Household
We all experienced less than ideal childhood situations, with one specific adversity as living with a parent with addiction. Most adults who had a parent or parents who were alcoholic (or addicts) know that as children they were affected by the addictive behaviour. We can visualize, perhaps even getting flashbacks now, the reoccurring chaotic, confusing […]
Mother’s & Father’s Days – Revisiting Our Parents
With Mother’s Day recently past and Father’s Day upon us, these days often evoke comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. Fond remembrances and pleasant current happenings can be shadowed by past and present regrets, guilt, resentments, disappointments and even anger. Take a moment to get grounded, take a couple of deep breaths, and think of each […]
Spring Renewal (Sorting Our “Stuff’)
The Christian term Easter is taken from the pagan Germanic fertility goddess Eostere who had a festival on the Spring Equinox. As much as we associate eggs with fertility, the Easter egg is a symbol of resurrection and new beginnings. The Easter story speaks to the archetypal pattern of the Eternal Return or the sacrifice-death-rebirth […]
Our Big and Little Lies
Carl Jung stated that “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.” Among the things people do is lie. A University of Massachusetts study found that sixty percent of subjects lied at least once (and an average of 2.92 times) during ten-minute recorded conversations between strangers. Why do we feel the need […]
Co-Dependent Tendencies
According to John Bradshaw, “co-dependency is the most common family illness.” Co-dependence is a set of maladaptive, compulsive behaviors learned by a person in order to survive in a stressed or dysfunctional family. Dysfunctional families involve a primary stressor such as the presence of alcoholism, depression, passive/aggressiveness, actual illness or death, abuse, or the controlling […]
