Peace, Happiness and a New Year

[HaWho]

Mleigh - I just want to re-affirm that you are not deserting her. It sounds like you have tried to reason with her. But if someone isn't willing to listen, you can't force your way of thinking onto that person. You have a lot going on in your life and as a mother myself, one could argue you could use her help through this time.

Depression and marijuana is a bad combination. You can't fix that for her. She needs to do that for herself. Battling depression is hard enough, never mind adding pot to the cauldron.

One last thing: you feel particularly guilty because you are an only child. But in many families, several children have to turn away from their dysfunctional parent. If you had siblings you might all need to protect yourselves and rightly so.

The problem is when parents wreak such havoc in our lives from a young age we don't feel that "bond" with them. But we feel guilty because we feel like we are supposed to feel that and so we think we're somehow failing as children. But, in the end, if those bonds aren't forged with kindness and uncondistional love, they just aren't what they are supposed to be.

Be kind to yourself here.