Episode 33 - Part 1 : Family Enstrangement: Choosing to run and cutting your losses

Letters to my kids: A suicide survivor's lessons and advice for life

Episode 33 - Part 1 : Family Enstrangement: Choosing to run and cutting your losses

Music: “Just A Blip” by Andy G. Cohen From the Free Music Archive Released under a Creative Commons Attribution International License

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/estranged-from-your-family-heres-why-you-should-stop-feeling-guilty.html

- Do you have family members you choose not to see or speak with? If so, you probably feel very sad about that, especially at a time of year when most families gather together. But if you're also feeling guilty over it, it's time to stop.

- It's more common than you think. In a British survey from 2014, 19 percent of respondents reported that either they themselves or one of their relatives had no contact with the family.

- You probably have a good reason. Most of the estranged people stay away from their families or individual family members to save themselves from dysfunctional situations or behavior. If you're estranged from your family, it probably isn't something you did lightly.

"All in all, punishment hardens and renders people more insensible; it concentrates; it increases the feeling of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance." - Friedrich Nietzsche

- Even a seemingly stupid reason may really be a good one. We've all heard about family members who stop speaking to each other over strikingly minor matters. But these things are never as simple as they appear. The breaking point was simply the final item in a dispute that had been going on for years.

"No one is willing to acknowledge a fault in himself when a more agreeable motive can be found for the estrangement of his acquaintances." -Mark Twain

- You probably gave them plenty of chances to make things better. Estrangement doesn't usually happen as a result of one big argument. It takes years for someone to break contact with a family member or family members. It happens gradually, with the family member reducing contact over time before cutting it off altogether.

"I think it's much more radical to see and show things as they look instead of making them somehow subversive through alienation." -Wolfgang Tillmans