The Couples Tool Kit
Working together as a team of three — by Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., Specialist in Couples TherapyRecognizing The Co-Narcissism In Your Coupledom
Watch Your Step: Couples relationships incorporate a complex interplay of behaviors and emotions that are products of the unspoken but powerful contract that provides a substructure of the shared life. There can be many substructures that compose the foundation of the attachment, some healthy and sustaining, such as common values and passions, others harmful and erosive to the bond. And one of the most harmful is the dance of co-narcissism…the “watch your step” or you may step on a crack that will break your partner’s trust and shatter, in a nanosecond, the fragile links holding the bond together. This is also described by many as the quality of “walking on egg shells” or “tip toeing around someone.”
The Beast Of Narcissistic Vulnerability In All Of Us: For some couples, the role of co-narcissist is fixed and rigid. The co-narcissistic partner is valued by the other as long as they satisfy their partner’s spoken and unspoken needs at the expense of their own individuality and emotional reality. The co-narcissist has been trained in childhood to subsume their identity into the folds of a parent’s needs, their day-to-day security in the “loving” parental bosom is only as good as their ability to mirror that parent’s greatness, goodness, talent, beauty, genius, or perfection in all things including parenting. By the time these youngsters reach adulthood, integrated into their psychological DNA is a finely attuned vigilance to another’s needs, along the lines of a lady’s maid or his lordship’s obedient servant, whose survival rests on anticipating and gratifying the lord’s or lady’s every whim. If they fail at their task, the beast dwelling within the seemingly normal human facade breaks out and roars, whines, whimpers, accuses, withholds or withdraws, with the taint of unworthiness, incompetence or cruelty smeared all over their partner’s character and self-image. In some Coupledoms, these roles are fixed. But in most Coupledoms, individuals take turns playing the parts, depending on a lot of variables including context, trauma, age, illness, loss and failure.
Owning The Narcissist Within: A surefire method to protect your Coupledom from Invasive Narcissistic Couples’ Disorder (my term), a virulent destroyer of mutual love and respect, is to own the narcissistic inclinations and attitudes within you. Most of us are replete in narcissistic habits of thinking, behaving and feeling. And a closer scrutiny of our tenaciously held belief systems in relationships will reveal some of the most toxic/self-absorbed, narcissistic ones. With an open mind and honest examination of self, matched by a willingness to hear how your partner experiences you, owning your narcissist within can save a whole marriage. Wow!
The Defensive You: What makes us all so defensive in exchanges with our partners about our “imperfections” is that we think any correction, suggestion or complaint, means we are all bad, all defective, failures at being lovable. So we bark, and balk about any single “criticism” or attack the other, feeling righteous and victimized. Oops, normal but not good and too much of it is creates long-term damage. Defensive responses, such as “I don’t do that but you do” (“turning the tables on the other” or “blame the victim”, familiar maneuvers to us all) or “I am never good enough.” Or “there is always something, I can never please you” can often be the narcissist in us speaking. Catch your defensiveness and you will find fearfulness, the threat that lurks beneath it and is based on very young notions that “I have to be perfect or I am unlovable, shameful or bad.” Change that nine-year old thinking and voila you have graduated middle school, skipped high school and now are an adult! At last.
Owning The Co-Narcissist Within: Alternatively, even as you are narcissistic at times, you may also be the one tiptoeing around on some issues or during particular stages of your relationship with your partner. Areas of discussion that are taboo are often indicative of co-narcissistic moments. A partner who won’t bring up a critical topic with their spouse ever, for fear that they will be perceived as having broken an unspoken vow, or being seen as an enemy, may often throw someone else under the bus as a consequence. Perhaps it concerns a child or parents, or the partner themselves, yet the threat of being perceived as hurtful or untrustworthy impairs judgment and impacts unfairly another, maybe you or your child. This could be around a spouse’s job loss, an illness, an addiction, or a sexual disappointment. If you notice that you are hyper-vigilant and micromanaging others, children particularly, around your spouse at certain times, you need to uncover the belief system behind these feelings, haul it out and question what you are doing, the ramifications for all, and make different choices, perhaps with help. This can be crucial to you, your marriage and your family.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Then there are those folks who suffer from and suffer others with their “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” which is vividly described in an article by Gudrun Zomerland, MFT, who is adept at capturing both how co-narcissists and narcissists come into being, and their impact on the Coupledom. The disorder, in its most severe form, is very hard to treat. Someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) often finds individual or couples therapy terribly threatening due to a mostly unconscious fear that others may see their “imperfections or flaws.” This possibility threatens to reveal their big secret, that they are in fact worthless, unlovable and shameful souls. Do they know that? Are these feelings so camouflaged by their opposite – self-love, self-importance, self-absorption and an inability to have empathy or interest in anyone who isn’t serving their needs – that even they don’t know what lies within their hearts? I don’t have the answer. Some may suspect and others may even give life to those feelings, but often that is just a fleeting moment before they fall back on their defensive, narcissistic posture.
The “N” Word: Villainizing Your Partner Or Your Ex: Writing this piece is a bit worrisome to me for fear folks may use it destructively. I have observed a trend in recent years where angry partners slam each other with the “N” word, making it more a weapon than a description of behavior or attitude. And ultimately weakening its usefulness. This piece is an attempt to elevate a conversation between two parties who share a relationship where each can own their “N” or “Co-N” piece without shame and ultimately mature together in the process. I work with couples that come into therapy convinced in their belief that the other wants to demean them or put them down, only to find out that in fact, this is not the case. This “narcissistic vulnerability” makes them view a partner’s initial attempts to describe the other’s impact on them, or some minor correction, as something personally threatening and ultimately so mangled and distorted in their personal viewfinder that instead of understanding, suspicion and distrust ensue. Particular subjects, such as parenting for women, and earning power for men, sexual appeal or ability for both, are sensitive spots and therefore are viewed as a personal attack, insult or assault. Finding out that this is not the case, that there are two people in the relationship which introduces multiple possibilities, reactions, beliefs and styles, liberates everyone to be able to trust again, grow up and become a much healthier, satisfied and happy Coupledom.
Help: This is work, wonderful work. For the therapist and for the couple who strip themselves of archaic belief systems which cripple trust and begin to embark on a real bonding based on honest self-reflection and empathy for another. Get an expert to help you do this very important work. Everyone benefits, the individual, the couple and the family.
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2012
Who Defines Disability? The DSM V and Autism: 1-23-12
Who Defines Disability: The New York Times last week published two articles back to back regarding the controversy in the medical and special needs communities over the revamping of the Autism Spectrum diagnoses including Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder NOS (“not otherwise specified”) for the 2013 publication of the DSM V also known as the Diagnostic And Statistical Manuel Of Mental Disorders. This is a large volume produced by the American Psychiatric Association and is the bible that guides the medical and mental health community in establishing parameters for the diagnostic categories that determine insurance coverage, treatment protocols and special education categories. The concern is that by refining Autism diagnoses, those with the milder forms such as Asperger’s and PDD-NOS will no longer qualify for treatments that have been deemed essential for their development. The fear is that services such as speech and occupational therapy, neuropsychological assessments and social skills training covered by insurance companies or provided by public school special education departments would no longer be available to children who now qualify under the current DSM IV designations. This is scary business for many families and touches upon issues that make raising a special needs child riddled with fear and feelings of powerlessness.
Spared For Now: Our daughter is not one of those with an Autism Spectrum diagnosis. She falls into the amorphous category of cognitive disability, neurological impairment or the stigmatizing and hateful Mild Mental Retardation, yes that word, (DSM V may use the diagnostic category Intellectual Disability in its place) because her I.Q. meets those requirements, though I prefer Dr. Michael Powers’ description that she is in fact an Artichoke. That is why years ago when her scores came in, it was clear that when she aged out of our school district at twenty-one, she would qualify for life-long adult services, as long as we lined up all our ducks before her eighteen birthday. Ironic indeed. “You never know what to wish for.” Nope.
Mon Dieu: Over the decades as we fumbled along the special needs highway toe-to-toe, heel-to-heel with families whose kids were each unique in strengths and weaknesses, I began to recognize how arbitrary these designations can be. The New York Times provided yet another article that underscores the mercurial nature of this process. A documentary on the treatment of Autism in France revealed that some mental health clinicians, specifically in the French psychoanalytic circle, treat Autism as a psychological trauma brought on by a cold and frigid mother. Mon Dieu! This notion, once sadly popular in the United States and similar in its horrific accusatory nature to the notion of the “schizophrenogenic mother” that reigned as recently as the 1970’s, apparently still has adherents in France. Rather than viewing Autism as a medical disorder that benefits from behavioral treatments and training, there are French children who have ended up as psychoanalytic patients to the point of being placed in an “asylum” for six years to undergo psychoanalysis. Frankly, as an American trained psychoanalyst, I find this fact particularly mortifying.
In other words, how a “condition” is viewed by the medical and mental health community determines the fate of the individual and history has shown how mercurial, judgmental and destructive that view can be.
Our Friends: Our daughter has many friends from her years at her special education boarding school Riverview whose diagnoses are on the Autism continuum, yet with I.Q.’s too high to qualify them for adult services. With the impending revision of the diagnostic categories that allowed these children services, fear is spiking that the current crop of children will not meet the newly revised DSM V qualifications for developmental services. Without these services, how will these children grow up to become successful adults in a social world?
Revision Sample: I have reviewed the DSM V revision sample online. Take a look. It seems pretty comprehensive and inclusive to me so please let me know if I am missing something.
Short Term Solutions Become Long Term Drains: There must be no doubt that providing the tools for successful adulthood, in childhood, is a benefit to all society. While still supported by their parents with shelter, food, clothing, transportation, medical services and love, children in public schools can be taught to socialize and communicate with their peers in their communities at far less cost to the government, the tax payer and society in general. If those same training tools were withheld, that would render the adult versions of these youngsters more likely to become burdens to the medical and legal institutions and places enormous stress on their families. And stress of that nature, research has shown, introduces additional costs to the medical and mental health arena as well as taking a big bite out of worker productivity. Short term cost cutting solutions, where human beings are involved, evolve into long-term drains for all.
Fingers Crossed: By the way, our intellectually disabled daughter just completed reading forty pages of “My Sister’s Keeper” in two days (“I like the movie better)…the Jodi Picoult novel for high schoolers and adults and will probably finish it off pretty soon. (Ms.Picoult is popular with women’s book clubs.) Does our daughter comprehend it? You bet, enough to know that the hot guy in the movie has not appeared in the book, so far. But can she pay a bill, safely cross the street, travel on her own or make critical decisions in an emergency? No. But she sure can read, thanks to years of special education services! Fingers crossed these precious special education resources will remain intact for the severe, the so-called mild, and all those in between whose success in adulthood depends on them. Fingers Crossed.
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2012
Illness and Loss In The Coupledom: Reality Shifts
Loss: I had loss on my mind this week. In fact, I always do but this week a family member shared her profound sadness upon learning of the tragic death of a very dear friend in the “prime of life.” She asked if I had written on loss and grief specific to The Coupledom and I thought: there are so many losses, in so many ways. And so I began to compose this post. Coincidentally, Sunday’s New York Times had two articles on loss as well, which gave language to a new form of secular communal grieving in one piece and the concept of “ambiguous loss” in the other. Both speak to the variety of loss, its power and the need for comfort in a never ending human struggle that marks our Coupledoms, as well as our persons, as mortal.
Chronic: Loss of a spouse or partner from a degenerative disorder is perhaps one of the most debilitating for the Coupledom, as subtle changes in the climate of the relationship may be felt long before a diagnosis is rendered. A kind of tension has tinged the emotional airways. Someone who formerly enjoyed socializing seems disinclined to attend parties or movies, traveling to foreign ports or sharing the T.V. remote. “Set in his/her ways” may not truly reveal the whole picture. A hint of moodiness is sniffed in the air, or a spark of anger more intense than previously seen, is easily triggered. Inflexible positions are taken on how to spend money, or when to visit the relatives. A sharp powerful mind seems a bit clouded. The changes are subtle at first and irritating. Then mobility issues or marked forgetfulness are noticed, initially attributed to over-exercising or mild senioritis. But with time and visits to the internist and finally a neurologist, a diagnosis emerges, and The Coupledom shifts with a powerful jolt. Someone is becoming a caretaker, and someone else is losing their edge. This is a slow crawl with pockets of loss all along the way. And grief.
No Shame: Many today know this kind of loss where the person is still with you but their character is changing along with their body; an ambiguous loss, not a death but a dying off of the familiar attributes of the beloved and the consequent shift in the role of the partner. Can the couple talk about these changes, these losses, locate something new that can replace what is being lost? Yes, but typically the healthy spouse doesn’t want to burden their partner with their pain, sadness or weariness. Extended families are important and friends who need to validate the grieving process with reality, not with false hope, denial or disapproval when faced with the anger, annoyance or frustration of the caregiver. The caregiver needs support and is at high risk for developing their own illnesses due to the stresses of carrying the banner of the relationship, filling two pair of shoes to maintain the shared life. For the caregiver, there should be no shame in wishing that they were free to live their former lives, no shame in leaving their partner in the hands of someone else so that they can touch base with essential pieces of their personal reality. This is necessary and if not gratified, depression and illness might ensue, complicating an already challenging time.
Grief Is A Shared Reality: A Coupledom faced with a slow and steady loss can grieve some of this together. Though memories are fading for one, the steady reflections of the other offer up opportunities to shed some tears or share some laughs together. Why not? Pretending that all is the same protects no one and stresses everyone. Loss is normal, human and provides moments where the depth of the bond can be acknowledged by the shared pain of its changes and losses for both partners. There is no ambiguity in grieving together what is lost.
Acute: The sudden onset of a terminal illness by one member of The Coupledom freezes time like nothing else. There was pre-diagnosis life and post-diagnosis life and they have little in common. Time and energy spent on treatments dominate daily life and interpersonal transactions for the couple. Other family members, children and parents, need care and protection from overwhelming fears and distractions so they can get on with their lives while the fight for health unfolds. But as the illness progresses, or the treatments take their toll, losses are already occurring. Mom and wife, father and husband, daughter or son, look different, act different and can’t quite muster their characteristic oomph or interest in the lives of their loved ones. Patients of mine, whose parents became ill while they were still in the throes of their childhood, poignantly describe these losses but often with the caveat that the adults around them never acknowledged the reality of what was being lost. Grieving was put aside as if to protect the “innocent.” Sadly. For both spouse and children, sadness and loss need language even as hope is still in the picture. However long the journey, the button of emotional expression should not be on mute, in The Coupledom or with other family. Again, the depth of the bond is revealed and nourished in the moments of shared grieving. These moments remembered when the loved one is gone can ease the pain because of what was shared with them along the way: something real, mutual and honest.
Unexpected Loss: Tragic unexpected death is the ultimate “blind-sided” experience. Rips open the heart and leaves speechless the surviving partner. The staggering impossibility. Shock and groping. What makes this experience so bafflingly cruel is the absence of preparation, no file in the emotional cabinet for this loss. Blankness and blindness, and the person who might provide the light to find the way is the one who is gone. Here is where the community of family and friends need to wrap themselves around the naked survivor who has no map for this experience. No map at all. Each day, in ways that match the needs of the widowed, a path of small steps is sketched in, a new reality slowly traced out alongside the grieving process. The personal identity that the partnership formerly provided is overthrown in a moment and something new that identifies “me” has to be born, over time, with the support and love of others. This will take time. Yesterday I was a wife, a husband, a lover. Today I am a widow, a widower, alone.
Small steps: Each day, baby steps mark the way towards a tolerable reality. Unexpected loss strips the survivor of their confidence in the predictability of life and this can be quite debilitating. Rebuilding a trust in the everyday world might take some professional help as well as the passage of time. Time is a paradox in loss. It is time whose excruciating tred moves so slowly along in the grieving process and yet it is time whose gentle hand can be so healing.
Our Coupledom Life: When we sign on for the shared life, written in invisible ink along the margins of the contract to love another is the profound truth: one of our twosome will depart first. Does that keep us from love? Hardly. Loss is life’s most consistent theme. If you need a hand to guide you when you are faced with the unfathomable, seek out family, friends or experts. Don’t totter alone. This deepest of all human emotions needs company.
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2012
“Money Matters” in The Coupledom: Budget 2012
Money Is Big: As the New Year confronts us, money matters can loom large in the line-up of Coupledom challenges: What are the expenditure priorities this year? Who manages the finances? Who pays the monthly bills, or not? Who brings home the dough? Who decides on how it is spent? Who knows where the money is invested? Who does the investing? Who decides on what the kids get? Which in-law deserves a loan, which doesn’t? Shall I go on? I think we all get it. Money is big. Money is massive in all our lives, by its presence and absence. As an observer of money conversations between spouses or co-habitating partners I notice some mighty common themes running through them.
Pitfalls Of Only One Pair of Eyes: Trust is a basis for successful communication and its opposite, distrust, its nemesis. From my observation what creates or sustains a trustful financial component of The Coupledom is transparency, the ability of each partner to know as much as their spouse regarding how money is earned and how money is spent. This transparency becomes especially significant when other obstacles confront the family nest, such as economic downturns, requests for monetary help from relatives or friends, time spent apart when one travels with an expense account and the other is in charge of paying bills, deciding outlays of funds for household maintenance, or children’s activities. Often, when a couple’s relationship hits the skids, accusations around money flare up because someone has access at their fingertips of the financial fountain and someone else is clueless. Not good.
The Subjectivity of Money Meaning: Money has meaning, but not always the same meaning to everyone. For one member of The Coupledom, money is broken down into how many literal pennies are in the bank; to the other, it is simply a state, we have it or we don’t; for a third, no amount of money spells security. For someone else money is scary, and ignorance about its details is preferred. There are folks who only feel in control when they are at the financial helm and cannot trust another to handle the checkbook, online or otherwise. For others, money is gender related: men earn it and control it, women receive their portion of it and spend it. Thematically, in western culture, money means power. Divorcing women whose homes ran along traditional western style money habits bemoan their ignorant years of marriage where hubby alone knew where the money went. Regretful that they didn’t demand “transparency,” the ladies are left to feel ripped off and robbed, though the evidence of that is often ambiguous. Why the assumption? Only one pair of eyes was focused on the statements, the investments, the W2’s, the yearly tax statements sent to the IRS. Not good! As prevention is a key focus of these posts, my aim here is to suggest that couples revisit how they run their finances and consider some modifications.
Accept Difference: A commonplace financial battle is around perception. One member of the couple sees expenditures as in line with income. Another disagrees, feeling much can be cut, much is extravagant. House cleaning is one of those areas where, for women, getting extra help to manage the chaos left by young children, laundry and dust is a means to the end of creating a greater sense of order and relief once every couple of weeks. For their husband, it means money that is needlessly spent when a good strong woman, their wife, is quite adequate to complete the task. Who is right? Who is wrong? No one. What money may offer one partner as relief, may do nothing for the other. A round of golf costs a penny but provides therapy for the body and mind. Just like housecleaning. Yet, rather than allow for difference and with two pairs of eyes look at the budget and decide the breakdown with both needs equalized, couples fight, accuse and blame. Again, not good.
No Deciders Here: College tuition is another grand slam big bang of a fight. One believes in state schools, the other wants their child to go wherever he or she wishes, private or not. Two pairs of eyes need to know the budgetary facts, what can be relinquished to afford the other, when values are at odds. Is the parent who wants the option of sending their child to a private college willing to yield up some of their personal perks or return to work part-time? No one person should be the “decider” in family finances. “And that is final” are words not worthy of expression in our times; rather, they hearken back to the age of rigid roles based on gender implied by “father knows best,” or “father is an idiot and mom knows best.” Now the mantra needs to be, “We together can figure out what will fly.” Not best, not worst, but negotiable and with two pairs of informed eyes, looking at a budget on a screen, with bank accounts and investment accounts side by side to provide a “shared reality.” All veils lifted.
Information is Power: And money information is particularly empowering. Today our financial life and worth is online. Need I bother to list for folks that everything from credit card expenses to cell phone and mortgage accounts to broker trades, iTunes costs, savings and business accounts, is up for grabs with just the input of an arrangement of 8-16 letters and a couple of numbers or punctuation, for all to see. Empowered folks are those who know the contents of the family vault, literally and figuratively. Don’t kid yourselves, no matter how great a guy or gal your spouse may be, they are not perfect, may need another brain to figure out how to run the family finances and decide priorities for all rather than base it on the mindset of one. And a heads up here: the need of one partner to control the monies is not the best sign in a Coupledom either. If you have a partner who feels burdened by bill paying and account balancing yet refuses to share the password or allow you to take over some of the payments, have a serious conversation. What’s up with that? Trust, fear, secrets, issues of personal identity, esteem or fears of being viewed as incompetent or an inadequate breadwinner? Listening skills required here, as well as heavy draughts of empathy and curiosity with a sensitive eye toward tweaking what isn’t working without condemnation or judgment.
Money Is Very Personal: And so is the shared life. To make a success of one, you need to have a transparency of the other. Good luck, see an expert if your Coupledom hits a wall here. And welcome to Coupledom Finances 2012.
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2012
Typical Friends And The Cyber Social World: 1-9-12
Question: There are many wonderful friendships made along the special needs pathway both for our daughter and for her family. Devoted, kindly and generous souls who emerge via a variety of interfaces, and most last. But I have a question here. Have those friendships that grew out of typical peers helping their special needs classmates last into adulthood and on? I don’t anticipate an answer; rather, more of a discussion. Our daughter had some “typical” smart and loving peers from her one year at our local high school, though none from her years in middle and elementary school, before she went on to her special education boarding school. Seven years later, only one of those four is available for actual time together. Some of this is geography. But Facebook doesn’t require proximity nor does text and cell phone contact. Nope, I believe this is a matter of “difference”. At least in our case.
Unfriended: Is that the correct Facebook terminology? I believe our daughter has been unfriended by one of the two remaining typical peer friends from that earlier period. How do I know this? Not from prying but from her not commenting on a particular incident reported on my Facebook page by this peer that would have alerted and, in fact, been of concern to her. She said nothing, which was puzzling, so I mentioned the situation her friend was facing. She had no idea. I did my own search and saw that this name was no longer listed amongst her friends. Previously we had to remove the name from her “contacts” on her phone because she began texting a bit too much, which she understood, and agreed that…”taking temptation away is a good thing.” But the Facebook deletion, that could be quite confusing.
Requiring Translation: This is not the first such incident. The Facebook and phone texting world can be a challenge for a special needs young adult whose inclination to be unusually focused on someone can feel like stalking, inappropriate or embarrassing. On one occasion, a friend of our son told our daughter in no uncertain terms to stop commenting on his photos on Facebook. That angered her and hurt her feelings. I think it also embarrassed and confused her. She didn’t get it. Another “typical” peer did something similar but since she had learned from the previous young man, she weathered the second “rejection” with understanding. Facebook invites many mortifying moments for vulnerable teens and young adults. Perhaps mature adults as well. So I cannot say that a special needs young adult is alone in this mix. But there is a difference. Reading social cues or grasping implicit social protocol, cyber style or not, is very difficult for the special needs world. And now that this young man (and usually it is a male who inspires her most active communications) has dropped her, the teachable moment has arisen once again. It is not for lack of kindness or goodness on this young fellow’s part. Nope, it is simply from his experience. When he had an emotional crisis last year, our daughter texted him constantly and made what might have been embarrassingly sympathetic comments on his Facebook page. It is simply a practical and preventative measure to bypass further embarrassments. Hence, the unfriending. Alas, it is not so easy to teach the nuanced distinction between appropriate empathy and what might feel like over the top, awkwardly soppy comforting.
Social Fact Facing: Our daughter does not choose to read this blog. And though she has been invited to participate in it, she has not. However last week I asked her for some input for my latest installment and her response was “Saying Goodbye To A Friend.” That was her input. Again her focus was on a young man who was off to study abroad, a “typical” friend (most are her brother’s pals who get her and care for her, and for him best of all) whom she knew she would miss. This is what moves her. She will probably communicate frequently via Facebook while this fellow is abroad, though I imagine he will have little time to respond. Will our daughter discover that her other friend has removed her from his Facebook listing? I think so. Do I need to tell her before she figures that out? No. And maybe I am wrong, perhaps he is still there somewhere but I couldn’t find him. But when she does notice his absence on her page, we will have a talk. Probably she will have her own ideas about why she has been dropped. And from her own ideas, she can learn. That is the good news. And learning social nuances, whether in cyber space or down here on the ground, is necessary for all humans, isn’t it? Taking a page out of a social skills workbook for special needs is probably a good idea for everyone.
Painful Process? In earlier times, I felt more pained for our daughter when she hit the jagged edge of social transaction, with the subsequent confusion and hurt. Now I do see that she learns something useful from these rocky crossroads. Something, not everything, because as so-called normals, we know it is hard to walk in another’s moccasins, especially when our toes fall beneath their soles.
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W, L.C.S.W. 2012
Aftermath: Cleaning Up The Coupledom’s Holiday Mess
What Was Your Holiday Like? I counted three holiday disasters in my caseload prior to New Year’s and I expect reports of more in the coming days. Disaster may be too strong a word since I believe most “messes” can be worked on and cleaned up with help. Hence the post. But holiday pressure puts many a Coupledom in a strained position and themes that run through the relationship the previous 11 months of the calendar year, contained by avoidance and “under the rug” strategies, can burst forth like hurricane floods breaching an heretofore damaged but still holding levee, drowning folk in emotional waves of pain, convulsing The Coupledom in ultimatums, ugly exchanges and fear.
Rescue on The Way: Does it take a crew from FEMA to save this Coupledom? If so, we are in trouble. Nope, it just takes recognition that opportunity is knocking. What emerges in the early morning hours of the holiday debacle is the harsh light of reality. “We have some problems here.” The husband who drinks through the holiday, insulting friends and family, despite attempts to keep him rested and out-of-the-way, should not receive a reprieve or a pardon but an intervention based on the “reality” that “our family or marriage” is at risk, not just one or two weekends a year but daily. Tough to do but perhaps the “sober” spouse can seek out an expert on substance and alcohol abuse and explore possibilities and strategies in the company of someone who has experience rather than rely on magical thinking that a heart-to-heart between spouses will make next year’s holiday better. Interventions, or however one wishes to describe the sharp cut of reality introduced to an in-denial addicted partner, are impossible to do alone. “Process” is key here, process for the sober spouse and family over time with an expert to examine options, build courage and know that alone this is not doable. Addiction is hardwired and only those who have trained in the practice of addiction treatment should be the sort to help the family unravel the ball of poison and pain that has invaded its heart and harmed its members. Do it sooner than later, not because of the holiday mess but armed with the wake-up call it provided.
Disappointing Partners: Two components of Western holiday culture place pressure and can wreak havoc on The Coupledom: the exchange of gifts and the New Year’s Eve Kiss. We are taught shortly after birth the notion that Christmas is when one is rewarded for being good all year by the perfect gift(s) from significant others. (Hanukkah is a different story but culturally has had to cope with the Christmas culture, though never perhaps with the same “reward” notion.) It starts with mom and dad, or Santa, depending on family folklore, bestowing the gift of your dreams, wrapped in love and affirmation of what a good boy/girl you have been these last twelve months. That gift or gifts, (depending on whether quality or quantity are the family measure of reward) can become symbols of such magnitude that if disappointing in one characteristic or another, or by their absence (no gift? possible? yes) the aftermath registers an 8.5 on the Richter scale of Coupledom quakes.
The Child In Each Of Us: Is it the child in us who is crushed when a gift seems to reflect “not being known” by a spouse? Is it the child in us whose eyes lose their light when, after unwrapping the promising box, a sweater in just the wrong color or size emerges: “How could he? He knows I hate green. What, he thinks I’m a large?” Is the pressure of choosing just the right gift greater this year because the marriage is shaky, the stakes so high that paralysis sets in and nothing is purchased, no package rests under the tree? I have written before about spouses who have been assailed as unloving, uncaring and “out to lunch” because of gift choices. About partners, who become so fearful of another onslaught of accusations of cruelty and selfishness, leaving them swimming in guilt and incompetence, staggered by the force of the attack, that they resort to gift buying clichés such as flowers, or candy, or nothing. Under the Christmas tree or in the not so warm glow of the menorah, marriage themes that lie dormant the previous eleven months fly out like bats from a darkened cave to descend upon The Coupledom, whipping their wings, casting eleven months of magical thinking and avoidance asunder.
Separating Child From Elder: Who is at the controls here? The child inside us who dreams eternal of the perfect holiday of love and reward, of being known and affirmed? Or the elder who is no longer dependent on fairy tales come true to feel good, loved and important? Holidays can regress us to the child because in many ways, they are for the child, at least in our Western materialistic culture. Separating the disappointed child in us from the realistic adult takes some doing, but is necessary. Our spouses are not perfect, nor are our holidays. But they do offer an opportunity to address the patterns in The Coupledom that need attention. Opportunity knocks – let her in.
As The Ball Drops, Does The Kiss Drop Too? Next to Valentine’s Day and our Wedding Day, New Year’s Eve probably ranks as the third most romantic potential of the year for The Coupledom. Do you see what I see? A blinking red sign…stop, beware, danger ahead. The wallflower symbol par excellence when I was a young adult was to be spending New Year’s without a “date.” No one to wrap the champagne glasses around for that ultimate smooch. For the grownup Coupledom, facing a New Year with someone with whom you have “issues” can intensify the pressures, provoke some bad behaviors, such as over-imbibing or flirting with a stranger, and culminate in ugly exchanges. The bad ending to a tough year can be another super alert that this Coupledom needs to do some fact-facing. Opportunity knocks once again to pick up the shards of a shattered New Year’s and look for help, together.
Religion: Religious intermarriage is often on the rails during holiday time if spouses are in conflict about observances or feel disloyal to families of origin because they are not following family ritual. A menorah and a Christmas tree sit beside one another but attending midnight mass may seem over the top. Feelings of guilt for not honoring one’s family traditions, or embracing another’s, might cause one partner to be less than enthusiastic about joining in the rituals of their spouse, though agreement was reached years earlier as to what religious direction to take for the children. Here again, smoldering embers alight into flames during the holidays. Respecting that one’s partner might be uncomfortable, in spite of previous decisions, is a loving and generous attitude that can go a long way towards strengthening the bond. It is not easy forsaking aspects of one’s roots when the season is upon us. Anger or distrust are not the solutions. Empathy without judgment is the path.
Resolution 2012: Neither professionally nor personally do I tend toward once-a-year resolutions. I am a “process your stuff daily” oriented clinician/person so I cannot offer a list of Coupledom resolutions without cringing. My bias is more towards raising up the mirror of holiday misadventure as a suggestive pathway for The Coupledom to follow towards improvement, with the help of a specialist when the issues are significantly thorny and foreboding. The heart-to-heart, the “lets make a resolution to never,” the forgiveness again…well, that’s just not good enough. Take The Coupledom to that third place, where someone who is expert in “process” and strategy, who has no investment in either magical thinking, denial or tea leaves can guide you along a path of reality, courage and skill-building. It takes a lot of skill to run a Coupledom successfully.
My New Year’s Wish To You All: Be courageous, choose honesty, seek out help when indicated! And please pardon my preachy tone.
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2012
Medication Rears Its Ugly Head: 1-2-12
The Holiday Season: We had no breakdowns this holiday. Our daughter spent Christmas weekend with us and New Year’s with her apartment-mate and staff and all went swimmingly! Well, almost all. She did have a bit of a setback that confusing Monday post Christmas when transitioning back to her CRS (Continuous Residential Support) life and a bit of a stomach bug conspired to create some tense moments. The usual gifting issues arose when an appetite for a new laptop case set off continuous text messages, exhausting an already super-tired mom, and finalizing several days later in a desperate phone call to the Vera Bradley store at a mall an hour and a half away. Transitions, as all parents know, can take the most resourceful children down, and special needs children find the shift from parental abode to school, dorm or new home particularly unraveling, even when the “home” is only twenty minutes away. It isn’t loss or homesickness per se that dogs the process. Nope, it is change, readjustment and reorientation. We all know what that is like.
Current State of Daughter’s New Life: We are now beginning the sixth month since move-in August 1 and a new calendar year. The machinery of daily living is rolling along nicely, with three volunteer jobs, loads of social and physical opportunities, and relationships with staff and apartment-mate in fine working order. One issue looms down the road: medication. Our daughter’s professional team has witnessed the impact of anxiety and attention issues on our daughter’s functioning and requested that we, her parents, review the possible benefits of medication. The relationship between anxiety and attention is the chicken and egg question that no one has yet answered. The week prior to Christmas my husband and I met with an Ability Beyond Disability psychiatrist (my husband is himself one of their treating psychiatrists and the two men are colleagues) to review our daughter’s status. For many years our daughter has been medication-free and the interplay of meds such as Ritalin, Wellbutrin, and others introduces that slippery slope that we slid down years and years ago, beginning in kindergarten and terminating in late middle school. Most medications mute down her sparkling personality, and though she becomes more focused, rob our daughter of her bouncy spirit and quick wit, intolerable losses. Some led to crashing moods. When younger and her behaviors took a more dramatic form, giant temper tantrums and refusals to go out to social events, the price was necessary to pay. Not anymore. That’s my position.
The New York Times: I had sent an email to the team reviewing our daughter’s past trials with a variety of medications as preparation for the meeting. The behaviorist and the residential coordinator met with us and the ABD psychiatrist. Wisely our daughter was not invited, as this was just a stroll down the medication lane without any plan to prescribe. It was the morning of December 21. The discussion was useful but I grew impatient with some of the dialogue because I have at the tips of my fingers complete recall of what ensued whenever our daughter was visited upon by some chemical cocktail, and though the psychiatrists know the chemicals, I know the kid. New medications were discussed and no decision, or even a decision to make a decision, ensued. The next day the New York Times, in their series on the treatment of the developmentally disabled in New York State, published an article chronicling the sometimes abusive use of medication in various facilities around the state. I am providing the link to the article not because our daughter is currently at risk for such treatment. She is not, because I won’t let that happen nor do I think anyone wants that to happen. But because it is happening to others, and the potential evil, even when “good” is intended, for medication abuse of the intellectually disabled is heartbreakingly real.
War Horse: Coincidentally, our family went to see the movie “War Horse” over the holiday, and the corollary for me of animal abuse and the potential for abuse of the intellectually disabled, or children, who cannot “voice” their distress or when they do, are not understood or seen as the authorities they are on themselves, rendered me in a painful puddle of tears and ambivalent about recommending the movie to anyone prone to such reactions. Of our family of four, I alone left the theater gutted, with reddened nose and eyes. But that is what mothers are for, isn’t it? To feel for those less powerful than we, and do something useful with that feeling.
Historical Concerns: There is nothing new here about well-intentioned educators, vocational or residential staffers suggesting that our daughter’s performance at tasks might benefit from medication. The last evaluation from Riverview in the spring of 2011 unequivocally recommended that the family review medication options. And so we are. But I am wary and wise from experience. Who knows? Life is long. Daughter has matured. And new meds are always on the horizon.
Stay Tuned To 2012 Parenting Adult Special Needs: One Day At A Time
©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2012
Free Holiday Gifts
As the holidays consume our time and attention, I suspect reading blogs will fall down on the “to do” list. But just in case you have a moment now or after the Times Square Ball drops us into 2012, take a peek at the contents page of The Couples Tool Kit. Or dip into the “search” category.
I have been posting on couples’ relationships for over two years with topics covering a broad area. There is a post dealing with weight gain in The Coupledom; a post about depression as the secret menace; the passive-aggressive punch that unhinges many a Coupledom; the plethora of narcissistic challenges from spouses, in-laws and parents; divorce and ex-laws; divorce and children; singledom blues; gift giving; sex – a powerful absence; women frightened and men not listening; infidelity; education of children, a needed Coupledom priority; having gay, Muslim, Hasidic, or transgender children; bullying wives; dreams as a tool with which to communicate in marriage; myths in marriage; adopted adults adopting; the art of listening to each other; denial and addiction in The Coupledom.
Many more posts but I think my message is clear. These are my gifts to you for the holiday. Sounds presumptuous? Perhaps, but they are also free.
Merry and Happy Everything to you all. I will be back with both a Coupledom piece and a Parenting Adult Special Needs post immediately after New Years.
Hanukkah is here… Christmas is coming… Don’t miss these posts from The Holiday Toolkit
The holidays are upon us, and with them, the potential for stressful times for The Coupledom. Whether we are talking about Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Passover, Ramadan, Valentines Day or just making resolutions on New Years Day, these posts have been popular in the past and offer useful insights, particularly at this time of the year. If you haven’t read them, or even if you have, it might be a good time for a bit of a refresher course:
The Divorce Survival ToolKit for Children of All Ages
Divorced: Now What To Do With The Ex-Laws?
Holiday Mayhem for the Coupledom?
ToolKit of New Years Vows for Relationship 2010
The Narcissist’s Stocking Stuffer: A Coupledom Alert
Valentine’s Day and The Coupledom: Is This a Test?
