I need support from my brothers in a messy divorce

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Hi Cary,

Your column spoke to a writer’s heart. It encouraged. It gave strength. It had passion and power.

It would be lovely if you would continue to offer advice.

That said, I need some support and advice. I’m in the midst of a contentious divorce. Friends started telling me several months ago that this was bad before I realized how the situation had deteriorated. How this divorce was not just another breakup, but a Shakespearean-level tragedy.

Collateral damage is beginning to pile up as my spouse (well, it is my view of this) gathers the orcs for her raids. To give some idea of her mindset, she had an order of protection placed on me when this started. It was vacated and recently when she attempted to have me arrested, a witness was present who was able to tell the police, “He didn’t do any of the things she claims.”

Okay, she lied to get the OP. But here is the kicker. Following that initial OP among the first calls she made was to my daughter, crowing how I’d been kicked out of the house (my daughter was also removed from the house as a result of the OP, not legally, but in fact).

Among the casualties are the relationships with my brothers.

There is a concept when relationships like these go sour to blame the victim. I’ve heard, several times now, “You ought to make up with your brother.” These souls treat me as the issue. I’m to blame for what has happened.

I won’t bore you with this. Let’s summarize this as I wake in the morning, look myself in the mirror and I feel damn good about myself. My brother? He is offering protection to a predator. And, no it isn’t my wife.

More collateral damage appeared this week. The divorce has been going on for eight months. In that time I’ve spoken to my second brother once, maybe twice.

This week I needed some emotional support. I made the mistake of calling on the second brother. Our discussion had nothing to do with the family. I was asking for professional advice on dealing with my attorney. My brother is nationally known for mediation and recently retired from the bench.

He quickly started in on me. I was to blame for not getting a prenup. I was to blame because I can’t articulate why there are bells and whistles in my head when I’m asked to work with a vendor suggested by my divorce attorney. I was to blame because I was asking for advice and he had only a few minutes to consider his answer. (Ummm… eight months and two phone calls in the midst of a contentious divorce?)

I stopped him finally and said, “Why am I to blame here? Why can’t you just accept the feeling in my gut? I’m calling for emotional support. I don’t see a lot of it.”

At that point he hung up. I was upset, but not yelling or angry. I was under assault and I had to stop him. My defense was reasonable and within the boundary of normal given the offense. And that statement above? That was the extent of my protest.

Nevertheless, I’ll be blamed as being angry and confrontational.

There are a few ways to deal with this as I see it. Maybe you can help me see additional ways? I’m thinking a handwritten note that lays out that I need emotional support, not blame, is in order. But writers, we can be so snarky can’t we? 😉

I could also walk away, as I’ve always done. I walk away and I seethe in anger. That seems a mistake.

Or, I could write that letter (or this letter). Put them aside and know that this brother is a detached jerk. That I asked for too much from him. Anything I say (or not say for that matter) confirms to him and others that I’m the problem.

Jump, if you want Cary, to the idea that I was the family vessel that received the blame. It would be true. Jump to to the understanding that this is a family of survivors of alcoholism.

There is a policy for dealing with family turds like this that I located on the web. It is called ‘state occasions only.‘ I like that idea.

And, I like summarizing the situation like this: my brother (1) is an ass who threw me under the bus to protect a predator and brother (2) we’re just distant.

Your thoughts?

Patrick

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Dear Patrick,

What you need is support. You’re not going to get it from your brother. But you can find it in lots of places. I suggest you set out to find the healthy support that you need.

It will help to have a clear picture of what this support is. It isn’t exactly the same as being told you are right, or were right in your decisions. But it’s being affirmed as a human being with rights and feelings. It is the kind of support found most often in 12-step groups, men’s groups, and in private sessions with therapists.

Your relationships with your individual family members is a separate issue. Do not go to them for support. There are many reasons for this. The most basic is that you’re not going to get the support you need from them. So it’s illogical to go to them. Beyond that, going to them exacerbates the problem because it brings up deep emotion rooted in family history.

In order to stop going to your brothers for support you may first need to understand first why you are doing it, when it’s not the best thing. You are probably doing it because of a lifelong wish to fix something, to have things the way they ought to be, the way they were supposed to be. So in order to stop going to your brothers for support you may have to accept the fact, in a deep way, not only that you come from an alcoholic household, but deeper than that: You’ve been hurt by this and suffered loss, and it is not recoverable. You have to accept the loss. You have to grieve. Now, it may be too painful to grieve. It may feel as though your entire world, your future, your self, was bound up in that dream of having the family work the way it was supposed to—i.e., having brothers you could turn to in times of distress.

That’s a very sad thing. It’s sadder than just knowing you had an alcoholic family. It’s really about having to let go of a wonderful dream. I know how sad that is. I had a wonderful dream, too, of how I thought my family should function, and for a long time this dream would precede me into a room; I would be thinking, if I just go back there, if we just have a family home, if this, if that . . . it will be just like my ideal childhood. But guess what? Even this ideal childhood is a wish, some kind of fantasy. My childhood wasn’t ideal. It’s just another place that I can pretend was trouble-free; it’s another fantasy.

To break free of the fantasy means accepting that it’s never going to be the way you wish it would be. It’s not. You don’t have to castigate your brothers. Just accept that they are the way they are, and that they’re not the appropriate people to turn to for the kind of support you need right now.

Find a group of men who are going through divorce. If you have anger issues, find a group of men dealing with anger. If you have substance abuse issues, or sex and relationship issues, or issues with food, or money, or your family, find appropriate groups where you can share your feelings and get support.

Remember: The support you need is not going to come from your family right now. So be smart. Find the support you need where it is most likely to be found: among fellow sufferers, fellow travelers, people who’ve been there and are offering a helping hand.

Now, a note about the column. (I’m putting this at the bottom because I don’t want to lead with stuff about me. That makes the column less of a service.)

I am writing the column one day a week right now and feeling my way through the transition from a full-time writer for Salon to a freelance writer, teacher and entrepreneur. My first love at the moment is novels, followed by short stories and then poetry, and if I can find a way to do everything I will. If the column slips away a little bit as I pursue these other things then that’s how it is. The last thing I want to do is keep writing it when I’m not in the spirit of it and drive it into the ground, like somebody who keeps dancing because he doesn’t notice the music has stopped.

I’d like to go out clean, on top.

So we’ll see. It’s partly a money thing and partly a creative economy thing, partly a creative ecology or infrastructure thing, and partly, to tell the truth, I feel like what I did for 12 years was write this thing every day and that was a particular kind of challenge. I gave it everything I had every day for 12 years and doing it just once a week is not the same. I can’t afford to do it five days a week because I have to make money.

So we’ll see. Again, thanks for the good words.

And remember: Your brothers are not going to give you the support you need right now. Go to the appropriate source for the support you need.

Connecticut_SlightlySmaller

5 comments

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  • Ray! Ray. You’re the Diogenes of the webby web and I’m frigging glad you’re back. Every few days is all I could ever do anyway. Do you TM, by any chance?

  • Hey Ray! Good to see (or read) you again. I was a daily lurker on SYA – used to comment once in a while until I somehow got cut off – and really enjoyed your input as well as Cary’s advice. Didn’t realise you’d left Korea, I guess you can’t teach English in Alaska. Good luck with the music. 47 isn’t old is it?!?! Most of U2 have a decade on you, not to mention the Rolling Stones.

  • Hi there. LW, I hope you carefully consider what Cary wrote. I think he’s absolutely correct, especially about the part about needing support. You need support and your brothers can’t (or won’t) give it. Now, you are dealing with your primal family drama again. But you don’t need that. You don’t need to go back into all that. You need support. Did you notice that? You started out with this totally different, very real problem and now you are writing to CT pondering how to deal with your brothers. Consider that carefully, and you’ll realize that the answer is “By not doing it at all.”

    Finally, since CT added an aside, I will as well. I’m back!! Uhm, maybe. Things have changed a lot in the year since my father’s death. Alaska was great. The job is still a jobbity-job. But this band thing has built up some momentum. I’ve played three gigs in the last two months, and we’ve gotten to the point where we’re about 50% original material. Hell, some chicks at our last show were singing along to some of our songs, which was beyond gratifying. So sometimes I feel like a character out of a Men’s Health magazine ad. You know: “Approaching 50 doesn’t scare me; I’m too busy kicking 47’s ass…” It’s fun (especially the creating part), and I’m enjoying hanging out with the younger guys, even if they are all immature, crazy and poor and even if I can’t quite take it all that seriously. I get to do the archetypical old-guy-in-the-group shtick, which is right in my wheelhouse, as you can all probably guess.

    So I’m in agreement with Cary that while I like the concept, I don’t really want to make it a daily ritual again. But I like the idea of checking in every few days or so.

    • Ray, welcome back. I have always liked what you had to say, whether or not I agreed! But I do have to take issue with you here: 47, or even 50, is NOT Old, not from a vantage point of, say, almost 69, like mine. The surprises and delights are very likely not yet over. A whole new world can arise. I promise. Good for you for going for it.

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