Originally Posted by EveningRose

I'm not far behind you. So far, it hasn't gotten better, but mainly because they're sucking my kids into their sickness. I'm still waiting for the dysfunction to catch up with them, for one or more siblings to finally see the light and get help. So far, it hasn't happened. They have each other and they seem happy with that.

Originally Posted by EveningRose

My parents are heading toward 80 and it sure looks like they're going to die on this path they're on.

Like you, I feel I've been more than generous and that keeps my nose very clean. I gave them every possible opportunity to reach for that olive branch I was offering and they refused to take it. My nose is clean. I did what I could and could not have done more, short of going back to being their scapegoat which almost certainly would have led to suicide.

I am not being dramatic. But I'm sure everyone here who's been constantly pounded into the ground and told what a piece of garbage they are, always wrong, always the screw up...knows that.

Originally Posted by EveningRose

Your advice to keep your eye on the prize, on your own goals, is excellent advice. I've done so since middle school and I believe it's why I've had *very* little therapy. I dismissed them in some corner of my mind, even from that age, and kept focused on what I wanted to do with my life, what I wanted to be able to put into the world.

I looked toward college, then toward career and family and I have done much of what I set out to do. My goal in life is to leave the world a better place than I found it and if I do that, then nothing they say about me matters because those who know me … KNOW me … know the truth.

Do anything and everything to put good into the world around you. Volunteer. Give to charities. Help kids in poor countries through one of those programs. Then your life matters and nothing they say does.