JT

If you put a frog into a pan of boiling water, it will jump out faster than the eye can see. But if you put the frog into a pan of water that is the frog's body temperature and then slowly turn up the heat the frog will stay in the water -- even to the point of boiling alive. Why? Because the frog does not notice the gradual change in temperature.

Alcoholism works the same way... the heat is constantly turned up but nobody notices. Cunning and baffling! It may start out with casually accepting unacceptable behavior -- Oh, he didn't mean that, he just had too much to drink last night. A few years down the road the behavior has slowly grown more and more intolerable, but it is still being accepted and becomes the "norm."

She ends up with chaos in her own home that a few short years ago would have been unthinkable. If she looked out the window and saw the same kind of things taking place across the street at the neighbor's house, she would probably pick up the phone and call 9-1-1 to get those people some help!

I was surfing and ran across this...I remembered how I felt when I finally got some help. I felt like trash...like an episode of "Cops". Certainly not what I had imagined my future to be when I was a young girl.

Hugs,
JT

minnie

JT - I love that analogy. It describes what happened to me so perfectly. Never again will I fail to take time to see the bigger picture of whatever situation I am in.

Dan

It sure describes what happened to me as well, JT.
In the pan, I mean.

osier59

JT,

I have used that analogy again and again to describe how my life used to be.... in my "former life" as I like to call it. There are still many times that I have to check in with myself to see if I am once again beginning to accept unacceptable behavior, or if I am making adjustments in my life so that I can be ok due to someone else's actions.

Thanks for the thread. It's a great topic for sure!

Hugs and love
Barb

FaithChaser

JT,

I've heard that before, and never realized how it applies to my life. Wow, that kinda hurts. Thank you for posting this definately something I needed to hear this am especially after lastnights craziness. I would have never accepted the name-calling and things that happend a few years back. I keep trying to jump out of my pan of boiling water, but the water has weakend me and my legs don't leap as easily as they used to! Keep trying to gain strength, learning how to walk away...

Thanks again,
~FaithChaser

Jackson

JT, Maybe you should mention, "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" I like frogs.