‘A Shark Just Ran Off With My Leg! HELP. HELP!! I’m Bleeding!!”…No you’re not bleeding.
Living in a Family of Denial
My 86 year old dad is dying. He is in an Assisted Living place now.
He was always a man of denial. He denied anything painful in his life. He was a party animal. The party might be over now for him because he recently had 4 strokes and his health has gone way down.
Recently my 60 year old sister went to him saying she was so depressed that she might be suicidal.
He said ‘Nah — you’re fine’.
WTF?
Its dawned on me as he ends his life how much he has denied his feelings and negative emotions all his life.
Whenever I went to him as a child or even adult with something scary or depressing he would say happy -go- lucky denying comments. I always felt dismissed, not heard or validated. He’d throw out:
Tomorrows another day.
It will all be better in the morning.
Just go take a walk.
Your so talented.
You’ll figure it out.
No. You’re fine.
Or he would make a joke. He was and still is a jokester.
