this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
20 points (95.5% liked)

chat

8386 readers
286 users here now

Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

On this post where I talked about an awful situation I had with my brother, there was a comment siding with my brother suggesting fervent agreement with him and a strong sense on blame on me.

And while I absolutely do understand the point of the comment and was just going to "leave it to the side," especially since the post is a few days ago, I absolutely can't. I can be extremely obsessive when I feel as if I've done something wrong. I can feel even lower self-esteem than I already do in your every day life when I make a mistake, especially one this bad, and while I don't think it's ever appropriate for me to reach out to my brother again and apologize, I can at least learn to live with myself. Unfortunately, I couldn't see myself doing that without making this follow-up.

So, to clarify, the way I responded to him wasn't the best way, and I can acknowledge that. I also want to clarify that my intention of my response wasn't that I wanted to neglect his request. Regardless of how I interpreted the response at face value, I wouldn't have minded taking his request into consideration, but it's understandable how the way I responded would've suggested otherwise. I admit that I was immediately kind of thrown off when he brought it up because, like I said, it was a first time complaint, and my immediate thought simply was that there are numerous ways a person could navigate this situation on their own end.

However, that doesn't justify the way I handled this situation, and I didn't mean to go about it so poorly. I don't know if that's a neurodivergent thing, but something that's always triggered my feelings of inferiority is the fact that I sometimes do or say bad things with a whole lack of awareness because of neurodivergence. I've been getting better, but because of me processing this criticism, such a wave of insecurity is hitting me as harsh as it's done in the past.

I don't know what to do. I don't know if I can do anything to make up for the wrong words I told my older brother.

But if there is nothing, then there is nothing. Like I said, though, one thing I can do is try to live comfortably with this mistake because being totally silent about it wasn't helping me.

I'd be focusing on one task and then jump into an immediate depressive episode because this incident suddenly pops back up in my mind. I talked to my therapist about it, but I can't take his input at face value.

I always felt like I come off as an insufferable person to most people, and my guesses don't tend to be wrong.

I don't know what else to do or say. I don't know how to stop making mistakes like this.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Comrade: Your brother should have just muted the group chat. But I can see him being pissy if he got woken up and lashing out. Your response was a bit dismissive which, even though it was pretty in the right, gave him a way to escalate. Sounds like you both got caught up in some escalative cycle.

This interaction overall just isn't worth the conflict. You're not evil, you're a person who had a difficult time with it. Your brother's not evil, he was probably just cranky from waking up tired.

Any chance there's some history or missing context that would explain why everyone in this story seems too defensive? Given that it's family, 100%. I think everyone involved deserves some grace and patience rather than condemnation.

Honestly, we see these sorts of little tiffs in animals and we're just animals too. One pigeon accidentally gets up in the other's space too much, they have a little slap fight with their wings, they establish the boundaries they want, they move on and it's nbd. They're still part of the same flock and they seem to get along fine after. There's something to be learned from that.

My recommendation: Take a few days to calm down, unblock those family members, apologize for blocking people, state you didn't want to escalate and didn't mean any disrespect and want to just let it be and move on. If your brother's got a hard preference for not getting texts at night he should mute the group chat but if he has some pressing reason not to mute it you could respect his (silly) boundary (because respecting people's boundaries even when they're ridiculous is part of maintaining the health of a relationship, as long as that does not involve you being harmed by the weaponization of boundaries) by just sending the message as a delayed message for the morning.

More broadly than this specific instance I wanted to address some stuff in the other post:

With both this family thing and your feelings about this person you're into, it sounds like you're suffering from a lot of big feelings -- feelings that are just too intense to handle easily and get really overwhelming, make your thoughts and behaviors spiral. And then those spirals can be really destabilizing or harmful for your life -- for example, It's good that you're seeing a therapist. I want to throw out there a suggestion for something I'm doing called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. It's supposed to help people with emotional regulation and not spiralling so much, and is "designed to help people who are going through hell." There's skills about how to control impulses -- yes, I know, I thought that was literally impossible, but after a month of doing this program I did start to some how magically be able to endure the spikes of impulsivity without escalating or making things worse. I don't even know how, it just started happening. This thing that I think is impossible became possible. -- At least where I am a lot of the groups seem to be led by poc femmes which has been a plus.

I feel mixed recommending it because it is a big time commitment, I haven't even opened my bill yet because I'm scared to see what it is -- as it is I'm only getting by at all with support from my parents -- but I am still alive when I did not want or expect to be by now so maybe it's helping? The biggest thing is for me: This feels like a remedial class in how to be an emotionally healthy and competent person. I sorely wish I'd gotten taught this stuff in elementary and middle and high school instead of all the worthless indoctrination they tried instead. It could have helped my life not go to shit. For me, all of this is too late. Now to be fair, it wasn't just my emotional instability that destroyed my life (my life partner wouldn't do serious therapy so their issues poisoned everything), but if I'd been more stable it would have helped a lot and given us more slack to work with.
It's too late for me, but it doesn't have to be too late for you. You sound invested in life, you sound like you're working toward love and health. You have opportunities and it would be tragic if the emotional difficulties that got stamped into you from whatever traumas you've been through in life sabotaged those opportunities and connections. So I guess my point here is: I recommend you try to get this sort of help while you still have some things going for you. It may pay off in incredible ways. Talk with your therapist about DBT, it's supposed to complement individual therapy, not replace it. Even just one example, if you're spiraling with your love interest not responding to texts right away, it's understandable but also that can be a big problem in relationships and it is VERY easy to create self-fulfilling anxieties that way -- "person hasn't responded, must not like me" ----> offputting behavior that makes them not like you, and then you wish you had been able to control those behaviors, but that really requires lessening the intensity of the suffering that led to those behaviors. And there are tools in the DBT toolbox that can help with that sort of thing -- tolerating the discomfort long enough to find a way to lessen it. It sort of helps take a step back from the feelings instead of getting swept up in them and compelled by them to act against your will.

Good luck meow-hug

[–] Angel@hexbear.net 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I appreciate the consideration, but I'm going to refuse to interact with him and the rest of the fam ever again because

  1. I don't think my contribution to their life was meaningfully positive anyway, so I find that it doesn't make sense for me to risk having something like this happen again for basically no reason.
  2. Even if I thought to apologize and make amends, I'd probably be deemed totally unforgivable by them. I fucked up bad, so I understand why they would feel that way.
  3. It's just going to add stress on top of other things for me to try to do this. I need more peace.

In another comment, I did add some additional context that may impact how you view this:

Also, you're right to say that there's probably more context at play. There is: my brother and I have a long history, especially from childhood, where he was often unkind and I was left feeling unheard by our parents. They’d brush it off with "That’s just how siblings are," even when I was clearly struggling to the point of getting depressed. So when I’m faced with that same cold, dismissive tone from him now, it really seems reminiscent of that.

And though I was stressed about the person I love, I'm glad I remained reasonably calm when it came to things like double-texting. Emotionally, I assume the worst, especially since I have incredibly low self-esteem, but logically, I knew that sending super anxious double texts wouldn't make sense because there still would be a chance that my immediate assumption isn't even true. I freaked out, however, because I always assume the worst and only consider a better-case scenario to be a lesser possibility. This is especially true in situations that pertain to my relationship with others. Since I have incredibly low self-esteem, I'd be less likely to guess that a person thinks favorably of me than I would be to assume that they don't.

I'm beginning to love her more than I love myself.

That sounds unhealthy. Maybe it is. However, I already don't have a lot of self-love, and she's an amazing person, so it makes sense, as unhealthy as it may be.

[–] CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, with that context of normalized emotional abuse and neglect your reactions make more sense. Do what you need to. I myself have gone no/low contact with family repeatedly over the years due to [things happening].

I still don't see you having done anything seriously bad.

With regards to loving this person:

Congratulations remaining reasonably calm. And I sympathize with not having much self love. All I'm saying is the tendency to assume the worst and then suffer immensely from that assumption is a liability. In general, unaddressed issues and liabilities make people's lives harder than they need to be, and it's sad. I'm extra aware of that sort of thing right now because my life fell apart in very large part due to my ex being unwilling (and questionably unable) to work on their liabilities, and I've in the past been through great hardship because I couldn't get the help I needed for my own liabilities from trauma.

In any case, you know yourself and your life far better than I. Good luck.

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I honestly don't think you did anything wrong but I don't know if that's entirely helpful for me to say.

[–] Angel@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not unhelpful; I just can no longer see it myself.

At first, I agreed with you, but after reflecting on the criticism for a few days, I've been feeling evil and even crying.

The intensity of the situation... I disrespected my brother, told him and other family members something as disparaging as "Fuck off" all because of an awful mistake I made in the first place.

And now I'm isolated from my family to the highest possible degree, I'm feeling the usual inferiority complex I've dealt with for ages, and I sometimes have nights lying in bed not knowing what to do, not knowing if I can do anything. My motivation seems entirely usurped because of this.

The only way I've been able to get some relief was to cry while looking at pictures of or messages from this very important person. That's it.

I had to make this post as the only other way I could've thought to find peace. Maybe I won't. This was a really terrible mistake.

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Let yourself feel your feelings and understand that they will eventually pass. I'm sure your family will understand if you explain once you feel better, and if they don't I'd be surprised. You're not a bad person.

It sounds like your brother was either primed to cast you in a bad light, or just in a pissy mood. I'd roll my eyes about it. Definitely nothing you did.

This was in a group chat? Yeah absolutely skill issue. You should mute group chats. Imagine taking the beauty of asynchronous communication and throwing it out the window because of a petty thing that can be fixed in two taps. Social rules that apply to things like phone calls don't apply because messages don't necessarily require your attention that instant.

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Angel@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

With the amount of people who seem to agree with this take, it almost reads like the one comment disagreeing might've been my brother in disguise or something...

joking obv