Tags
Abuse, crazy-making behaviour, Domestic Violence, dysfunctional relationships, Emotional Abuse, Emotional and Psychological Abuse, Narcissism, Passive Aggression, Psychology, Relationship abuse, Relationship Problems, Relationships, Spiritual Wounds, Spirituality, Verbal Abuse
Please note: I have referred to abusers as male and their targets as female, simply because it has been my subjective experience and I write from my phenomenological perspective. I would like to highlight the fact that abusers and their victims do not fit neatly into gender-based categories. Men are just as easily victims and women are just as easily perpetrators.
My ex-abuser asks himself the question of why he was attracted to two nutcases; two sick and twisted women. The first part of my answer is simple. I am, most assuredly, not a nutcase. That’s simply a facet of his delusion.
The second part of my answer is more complicated. Yes, I am a wounded spirit. I have yet to meet a human being, over the age of forty, who doesn’t fit this definition. Life batters us, we get up and keep moving forward; we make a fist of it, and succeed in varying degrees. But we are all wounded.
It’s true I was wounded in a particular way, which abusers seem to zoom in on. They detect victims of childhood abuse with a radar-sense a bent-wing bat would be proud of. But why? And here’s his answer. Because we’re easy targets for further abuse. Let’s read that again…’because we’re easy targets for further abuse.’
Does this mean we’re weak? No. In fact, we need to be incredibly strong just to survive. Are we sick? No. But we’ve had sick acts perpetrated against us; and that makes us vulnerable to further sick acts, emotional, psychological, physical and sexual, depending on the penchant of our particular abuser. The developmental damage done in early childhood is particularly recalcitrant and can, at best, be managed. It is rarely expunged completely. Our boundaries have been severely damaged and are more permeable than they should be.
Are we capable of rage? You bet. To express rage in the face of such severe mistreatment is a normal, healthy response, one that was silenced when we were children – a protective defense mechanism that we should never be shamed for. But we are, of course, shamed for it; it is twisted and used against us as a justification for all the crazy labels our abuser uses to define us. This is another reason we’re chosen. Those without significant abuse in their past would simply walk away, having a healthy self-belief nurtured into being during their developing years. They know they don’t have to stay and’ take it’.
Inside every victim of childhood abuse is a tiny wounded child who desperately wants to defend herself against the harm she was unable to defend against as an infant. She wants to step up and protect the sad and frightened inner child. We do this in various ways, all of which are attractive to our abusers. Some of us plead for understanding and love, hoping to recreate a loving bond with the adult who hurt us, and who is represented by the current abuser; thereby healing the wound. Narcissistic abusers interpret this as weak and pathetic, justifying their treatment of us. They don’t see a precious human being who is crying out for love and care. They see a pathetic, sick, twisted thing who isn’t strong enough to stand up to them.
Inside every adult survivor of childhood abuse, there lives a tiny, wounded child, crying out for help.
Some of us challenge the maltreatment dished out to us. This enrages our abuser even more. How dare someone thwart the will of one who perceives himself as the center of the universe, whose needs will always trump ours, whose wisdom is always greater and whose intellect is always superior? How dare we? At this point, all restraint will leave a narcissistic mind as it batters us into submission. It matters little whether the battering is verbal, emotional or physical. The impact on us is the same. We are confused, frightened (just like when we were little), without any defense against the onslaught because there is no defense against lying, manipulation, gaslighting, labeling, defining, deceit and other crazy-making behaviors. There is no defense against passive aggression. There is no defense against irrationality…and it is all irrational.
Once again we become a perfect target, an easy target. Instead of walking away from the relationship, we are challenging our abuser the way we wanted to challenge the abuser of our childhood. We were silenced then and we’ll be damned if we’ll be silenced now.
One of the main aims of abusers is to ‘silence’ their victims, leaving us voiceless and without a means of escape.
But what are the shared characteristics of people ‘chosen’ by abusers? Why ‘us’, as my ex-husband asks, albeit in a convoluted way?
I expect most of us are sensitive. Every nerve-ending was lit on fire all those years ago. We will never forget; we remain sensitive not just to further wounding of ourselves but also to the possibility of hurt in our fellow human beings. There is often a melting compassion at the heart of victims of abuse – we can’t abide the thought of another human being crushed by pain.
I expect many of us want to show abundant love and caring because we were so bereft of it ourselves as children.
I expect many of us have calm exteriors from years of practice at being ‘unseen’ and ‘good’ so that our childhood abusers will leave us alone. I expect many of us have developed an attitude of humility, having been brought so far down into the depths of depravity that we have no illusions about the human condition.
I expect many of us are practiced ‘deep processors’. Having had to face our problems alone, analyze them alone and make sense of the world alone, with our dark secrets safely hidden from view, we are likely to be introspective; deep thinkers who are largely disinterested in superficial pursuits.
I expect many of us have a strongly developed morality, having been so profoundly violated in our pasts. A strong sense of morality helps make the world a safe and decent place for us. We cling to it like a life-raft.
I expect many of us have developed a strong spiritual core, having spent so many years calling out to God, the universe, the Great I Am, to keep us safe, to remove our pain and to heal our broken hearts and spirits.
I know that all of these qualities attracted my husband during our days of courtship. In fact, he was intoxicated by them; rapidly and passionately… until they became the very qualities he most despised about me, seeking, at every opportunity, to destroy those very aspects.
So that is why he was attracted to two women with wounded spirits – both wounded in similar ways in our childhoods. He smelt us out because we filled a deep need inside him to tear apart a vulnerable human being. Women, and men, who have not been through childhood abuse, would simply walk away.
THAT IS WHY WE WERE CHOSEN.
It is not an answer he would wish to hear.
Thank you for this. You took the words right out of my mouth. I’ve been in an abusive relationship for the past 2 years and I am still fighting to leave. I hope one day I’ll be okay.
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I cried because it’s too damn relatable…I wonder if that God exists though …My love to your beautiful being… Thankyou angel
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Let those tears flow. They’re so healing, even when they’re unwelcome. I remember, all too well, being in floods of tears when I recognized myself in other people’s writings and felt a connection; an understanding; and an empathy I hadn’t felt before. There is something quite cataclysmic in moments like these; moments that rock our souls.
Your question about whether God exists is part of my daily struggle to keep seeking the truth. I doubt our minds can fathom it, to be honest. What I do know for certain is that when I accept God’s existence and live my life in connection with the Great I Am, I am happier. The anxiety that has plagued me all my life dissipates. The nightmares end. And peace seeps into every fibre of my being.
My love to your beautiful being also. I am so touched by your words.
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Excellent post 🌹🌷💕🐇
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Thank you. I love your work too…and draw much inspiration from it.
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I am a nutcase. I was a pillar of the community, I went to church, I was respected by people at my children’s school. I drove the speed limit then years of gas lighting and domestic terrorism led to my unraveling. I should pen a book, Nutcase No More. It is classic projection. Your post is well written and spot on. Too bad we can’t make it past 40 before experience transforms us. I hope you are healing and doing well.
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Well, fellow nutcase, I like having you around. 🙂 And I definitely think you should pen that book – it’s a great title…people would be hooked by it. You certainly have the required ‘oomph’ as evidenced by those posts of yours I always rush to read. I was over 50 before I came to my senses and began to trust my own reality again. It’s still a struggle at times; one step forward and two back occasionally, but mostly the progress is steadily forward. I was triggered by a television program last night, which led to a meltdown, which then led to a relapse of my chronic illness – but I’m using it as a therapeutic process and am currently writing a piece on it. I hope you’re healing well also. This blog community has been a wonderful support.
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Hello Miss Min, the blogging community has been wonderful support, I hope you recover for your setback and return to the forward road of healing. It is the nature of the beast isn’t it? Two steps forward and three or four sometimes, steps back. Thank you for your kind words and enthusiasm for my work, writing is for me primarily a therapeutic process. I wish you all the best and look forward to reading your next post.
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Pretty pathetic for the abusers-calling their chosen spouses “nutcases”…they have no idea that whatever they see in the spouse is their creation. My abuser drove at least two women before me to nervous breakdowns…maybe wounded before he got hold of them, but torn completely apart after his contribution!
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It’s actually criminal as far as I’m concerned. My abuser’s first wife suicided…the ultimate act…she turned all her pain and anger on herself when it should have been unleashed on him. Naturally, he sees himself as a long-suffering saint; no doubt yours feels the same way. They are so completely blind to the atrocities they perpetrate on the human spirit of those they’re supposed to love. Despicable. I hope and pray that your healing continues.
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Sadly, coming out of this type of abuse gives complete understanding and an intolerance for evil. So thankful for finding support so quickly…I have a soul sister survivor in wife number one, as he actually held a gun to her head…gee, and he called her”crazy”???
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I can hear the pity story in my head: “Poor me”, says the narcissist. “I need a loving woman like you by my side to help me heal from the grief of losing my first wife. It was such a shock when she died. I had no idea that she was so unhappy with her life. We had the perfect marriage.”
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Lol…you must be psychic! Playing the Martyr is his preferred role in life. I have no doubt he’s playing the same tune to someone else now. The story will be slightly changed now – the grieving widower who was ‘got at’ by a crazy money-grubbing second wife. 🙂
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