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Old 12-29-2008, 12:30 PM
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GiveLove
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Stumbling toward happiness
Posts: 4,706
isitme,

It could be that you're not taking action because the task is just too huge. It was for me -- a big huge ball of tangled spaghetti that I simply couldn't face.

I made progress by breaking it up into pieces
...getting a PO box and keeping that a secret
...setting up my own bank account with the statements going to my PO box
...putting away enough money, dollar by dollar, to get by
...reducing my living expenses and pocketing the extra (see above)
...discreetly reading the rental ads every week so I'd get an inner sense of what was available and for how much
............and so forth.

Taking any one of these small steps didn't commit me to leaving, but it made me feel a hundred times more powerful.

I also had to examine why I stayed -- what I got out of it. For me, my anger validated me, made me feel righteous, made me feel human (in the same way that cutters feel alive when they self-mutilate) It was how the women in my family had always lived, gossiping in the kitchen about how stupid and inconsiderate and mean their husbands were. Gossiping was enough - they'd never actually DO anything about it.

Until I admitted why I stayed - "what was in it for me" - then I was working against myself. And all the SR advice in the world couldn't budge me from that horrible situation.

Why do you think you stay?
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