Today is my anniversary here on the CD site

recoveringenabler

Well-Known Member
Staff member
January 6th, 2012 was when I found this site. 6 years ago. Last night I read my first post here. Yikes. It's been a long journey.

When I began here all those years ago, I was deeply stuck in my enabling with my daughter .....and as it turns out, with mostly everybody. I'd been working on these issues for many years, but when my daughter's life went completely off the rails 6 years ago, everything heated up and merged into a huge, hot mess. I could see it was an opportunity for me to finally heal this, but I didn't know how.

At the same time I found this site, I had entered into that codependency course which in addition to the support I was receiving here pushed me into a recovery I actually didn't know I needed. But the circumstances with my daughter got so out of hand and so ugly, something different had to be done. At that point in time, I didn't know how much of my life was about to change.

The codependency course showed me a new way to live, a different way to respond to those in my life who I was in patterned, dysfunctional, unhealthy connections with. My daughter was the catalyst however, my codependency reached into every part of my life. It's an inauthentic way of being. I focused on healing it with her. But, as I healed, there were many other areas of my life which had to change if I were to truly recover and heal.

As I learned to put myself as the priority, set boundaries, say no, stop over-giving, check in with myself to determine what it is that I wanted and needed, learned to let go of control, accept what is, stop arguing with reality, stop feeling responsible for everything, stop the guilt, lessen the fear, learn ways to communicate without resentments/angers so that I got seen and heard, figured out how to ask for what I want, to express what I don't want, to take a stand for myself, to let go of people, a job, beliefs, judgements and old strategies that ceased to work anymore and to promote more compassion, kindness, love and empathy for myself........the world as I knew it began to insist on many changes.....I let go of old friends who were part of the old way of being, who couldn't love me the way I now needed to be loved......I let go of family members who are too mentally ill to successfully have loving, healthy relationships.....I let go of my career.......I let go of the way I was eating, I changed my entire diet to now incorporate the simple, healthy diet which works best for me.....I let go of my role in my family as the responsible caregiver... I let go of an enormous amount of guilt I had carried about my siblings and my unhealthy sense of duty towards them.... I let go of my propensity to not believe I was worthy of a good life......with the wildfires here in California, I even had to let go of my home and my belongings before I knew they had survived the fires......I let go of so much that by the end of this last year, I felt completely empty.

And, then I got the flu on Christmas Day.

In the last 2 weeks as I've been healing from the flu I've been processing a lot. I went thru so much grief in the last 6 years......I believe grief is necessary in order to move on. I believe grief needs to be expressed so that we can let go of it and open to the new. These last 6 years have been enormously sad for me, there's been so much to let go of....so much to accept.....so much to grieve.... It's been hard. As I've been lying on the couch recovering from the flu, I've been going over these last years, recognizing how far I've come, how much I've let go of, how much life has changed.

All of the letting go and learning to accept what I have no control over has been an incredible gift......we humans hold on so tightly to control and yet, if we can learn to let go, on the other side is relief, a big empty space of possibility, an openness and an availability to life that is not open to us if we are holding on tightly to how we believe things SHOULD be and demanding they stay that way to protect us from the inevitable pain of having to change.

My daughter was what put me on this path of recovery.....her negative behaviors pushed me to change. And, we've both changed. The tools I learned to detach from her lifestyle and choices were the same tools I used to change the rest of my life. As I've mentioned before, I see this journey we're on here as a spiritual path of self discovery, awareness, opening and learning to be our authentic selves. I believe a big part of that journey is to learn to accept life the way it shows up and to learn how to thrive in that understanding, without fighting it. I argued with reality about my daughter for a long time.....until it got to a point where it was killing me.......and then I began to learn how to let go....often I think our troubled kids turn out to be our greatest teachers, at least that's been my experience. I've learned to love myself so much better and that lead to being loved so much better .....which lead to seeing the world thru new eyes of kindness......for me, for my daughter, for everyone, for life.

So, as the New Year begins, I have a new and very cool sense of excitement for whatever happens next. I have not had that for 6 years. I don't know what is coming next however, I'm going there without the baggage of my past and the enabling tendencies..... I'm going there with a light heart filled with gratitude.

It's been an honor, a privilege and a gift to be a part of this group....you've all offered so much of yourselves.....you're all a blessing to me.....thank you.

Happy New Year.
 

Guidance seeker

Active Member
RE - you have been incredibly brave and have come such a long way. I admire you and hope that I too can develop in the way you have.

You have been through so much but you have gained so much strength along the way.

You take time to support people on this forum and have given me great support during the short length of time I have been on here.

Thank you.
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
Thank you for sharing this with us. 6 years is a long time and yet a very short time. I'm so happy that you have come to a place of peace and acceptance.

You are such an inspiration to me and so many others here.

Hope you are feeling better from the flu. That was not a very nice Christmas present.
 

SeekingStrength

Well-Known Member
RE,

You have been an inspiration and so full of wisdom. Count me among the lives you have touched and blessed. And, YES, i mean BLESSED.
You were one of the very first folks on this forum to reach out to me and I remain forever grateful for your practical advice. Your words immediately decreased my angst, lessened the weight on my heart.

While I wish you had never had to deal with most of the things you mentioned, I am grateful you have been here.....for me, for all of us.

Flu on Christmas Day. :sweating: Glad you are feeling better!
 

newstart

Well-Known Member
January 6th, 2012 was when I found this site. 6 years ago. Last night I read my first post here. Yikes. It's been a long journey.

When I began here all those years ago, I was deeply stuck in my enabling with my daughter .....and as it turns out, with mostly everybody. I'd been working on these issues for many years, but when my daughter's life went completely off the rails 6 years ago, everything heated up and merged into a huge, hot mess. I could see it was an opportunity for me to finally heal this, but I didn't know how.

At the same time I found this site, I had entered into that codependency course which in addition to the support I was receiving here pushed me into a recovery I actually didn't know I needed. But the circumstances with my daughter got so out of hand and so ugly, something different had to be done. At that point in time, I didn't know how much of my life was about to change.

The codependency course showed me a new way to live, a different way to respond to those in my life who I was in patterned, dysfunctional, unhealthy connections with. My daughter was the catalyst however, my codependency reached into every part of my life. It's an inauthentic way of being. I focused on healing it with her. But, as I healed, there were many other areas of my life which had to change if I were to truly recover and heal.

As I learned to put myself as the priority, set boundaries, say no, stop over-giving, check in with myself to determine what it is that I wanted and needed, learned to let go of control, accept what is, stop arguing with reality, stop feeling responsible for everything, stop the guilt, lessen the fear, learn ways to communicate without resentments/angers so that I got seen and heard, figured out how to ask for what I want, to express what I don't want, to take a stand for myself, to let go of people, a job, beliefs, judgements and old strategies that ceased to work anymore and to promote more compassion, kindness, love and empathy for myself........the world as I knew it began to insist on many changes.....I let go of old friends who were part of the old way of being, who couldn't love me the way I now needed to be loved......I let go of family members who are too mentally ill to successfully have loving, healthy relationships.....I let go of my career.......I let go of the way I was eating, I changed my entire diet to now incorporate the simple, healthy diet which works best for me.....I let go of my role in my family as the responsible caregiver... I let go of an enormous amount of guilt I had carried about my siblings and my unhealthy sense of duty towards them.... I let go of my propensity to not believe I was worthy of a good life......with the wildfires here in California, I even had to let go of my home and my belongings before I knew they had survived the fires......I let go of so much that by the end of this last year, I felt completely empty.

And, then I got the flu on Christmas Day.


What a wonderful post. I am so glad you learned the tools and moved forward. I got the flu a few days before Christmas and still do not feel 100% I tell my husband I am downloaded to about 67%. Worst flu in many years. I too have been processing a lot.
In the last 2 weeks as I've been healing from the flu I've been processing a lot. I went thru so much grief in the last 6 years......I believe grief is necessary in order to move on. I believe grief needs to be expressed so that we can let go of it and open to the new. These last 6 years have been enormously sad for me, there's been so much to let go of....so much to accept.....so much to grieve.... It's been hard. As I've been lying on the couch recovering from the flu, I've been going over these last years, recognizing how far I've come, how much I've let go of, how much life has changed.

All of the letting go and learning to accept what I have no control over has been an incredible gift......we humans hold on so tightly to control and yet, if we can learn to let go, on the other side is relief, a big empty space of possibility, an openness and an availability to life that is not open to us if we are holding on tightly to how we believe things SHOULD be and demanding they stay that way to protect us from the inevitable pain of having to change.

My daughter was what put me on this path of recovery.....her negative behaviors pushed me to change. And, we've both changed. The tools I learned to detach from her lifestyle and choices were the same tools I used to change the rest of my life. As I've mentioned before, I see this journey we're on here as a spiritual path of self discovery, awareness, opening and learning to be our authentic selves. I believe a big part of that journey is to learn to accept life the way it shows up and to learn how to thrive in that understanding, without fighting it. I argued with reality about my daughter for a long time.....until it got to a point where it was killing me.......and then I began to learn how to let go....often I think our troubled kids turn out to be our greatest teachers, at least that's been my experience. I've learned to love myself so much better and that lead to being loved so much better .....which lead to seeing the world thru new eyes of kindness......for me, for my daughter, for everyone, for life.

So, as the New Year begins, I have a new and very cool sense of excitement for whatever happens next. I have not had that for 6 years. I don't know what is coming next however, I'm going there without the baggage of my past and the enabling tendencies..... I'm going there with a light heart filled with gratitude.

It's been an honor, a privilege and a gift to be a part of this group....you've all offered so much of yourselves.....you're all a blessing to me.....thank you.

Happy New Year.
I am grateful that you are on the site and have helped me already so much. Thank you for your wisdom and guidance and most imporant your compassion. In 2016 I gave up sugar and revamped my entire way of eating. It was very hard on my husband because we love to go out and eat. My CD daughter said she gave up sugar this year but I do not believe it, she maybe low sugar but not NO sugar. I still eat fruits and lots of them so I am level 3 sugarfree. On level 4 is no fruits. Happy New Year Beautiful Soul.
 

newstart

Well-Known Member
I am still trying to figure out how this site works, I did write more but do not see it on my post. I was going to say I am sorry you had the flu. I got the flu a few days before Christmas and I am still not feeling well. I tell my husband I am only 67% downloaded. I usually do not get sick and not for this long. It has been 2 full weeks today and I still have spots in front of my eyes. I took a one mile walk down by the creek, saw the wild animals, birds flying and felt the sun on my face, I have not seen Mr.Sun for sometime. I loved seeing all the turtles sunbathing. As the sun hit my face I asked God to remove the pain that is in my soul. It worked, I felt so much lighter.. Lots of healing happened today. I am grateful for you and this site and to hear how others made it back to having a peaceful heart. Thank you.
 

Littleboylost

Long road but the path ahead holds hope.
RE
You are such an inspiration and support. You have been through the eye of the needle and come out a better and amazing person.

As I learned to put myself as the priority, set boundaries, say no, stop over-giving, check in with myself to determine what it is that I wanted and needed, learned to let go of control, accept what is, stop arguing with reality, stop feeling responsible for everything, stop the guilt, lessen the fear, learn ways to communicate without resentments/angers so that I got seen and heard, figured out how to ask for what I want, to express what I don't want, to take a stand for myself, to let go of people, a job, beliefs, judgements and old strategies that ceased to work anymore
This brought tears to my eyes. What a journey you have been through and you are here and share and help us all through our journeys.

As I learned to put myself as the priority, set boundaries, say no, stop over-giving, check in with myself to determine what it is that I wanted and needed, learned to let go of control, accept what is, stop arguing with reality, stop feeling responsible for everything, stop the guilt, lessen the fear, learn ways to communicate without resentments/angers so that I got seen and heard, figured out how to ask for what I want, to express what I don't want, to take a stand for myself, to let go of people, a job, beliefs, judgements and old strategies that ceased to work anymore and to promote more compassion, kindness, love and empathy for myself........

This is a focus and goal for many of us. You are a light of hope.

All of the letting go and learning to accept what I have no control over has been an incredible gift

You are an incredible gift to us all!

RE,

You have been an inspiration and so full of wisdom. Count me among the lives you have touched and blessed. And, YES, i mean BLESSED.
You were one of the very first folks on this forum to reach out to me and I remain forever grateful for your practical advice. Your words immediately decreased my angst, lessened the weight on my heart.

While I wish you had never had to deal with most of the things you mentioned, I am grateful you have been here.....for me, for all of us.

Flu on Christmas Day. :sweating: Glad you are feeling better!

Well said SS I completely agree!
 

Albatross

Well-Known Member
Add me to the blessed-to-know-you list too, RE. Wisdom and compassion are what make this forum such a safe haven, and you live and share those qualities in everything you write. Thank you for all the hard-earned advice you have shared over the years.
 
You area true inspiration to all of us. Your kind, understanding words mean so much, and offer help and support to us all in times of need. I wish you a speedy recovery and a peaceful New Year.
 
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