Episodes dealing with emotional incest/emotional neglect/&ct

[lovelovestolovelove]

A defining part of my childhood was watching my mom struggle with depression and an eating disorder while never modeling any coping skills, acknowledging what was happening, or even using the words "depression" or "eating disorder." In a recent letter to me she used the phrase, "my eating disorder" for the first time ever, which felt like she had cracked open an emotional door that hadn't been open before. The Mental Illness Happy Hour has helped me SO much over the last couple years, and I've tried to recommend it to her, but she's never really gotten into it. I am going through a process of learning to feel less responsible for my mother's emotional well being, but I would still like to be able to point her in the direction of something that might make her feel less alone, because I know the podcast has done that for me.

A lot of my mom's struggles come from her unhealthy relationships with her parents. I would like to be able to recommend specific episodes that deal with some of her issues, but I've been having trouble coming up with some just by searching the archives. Some of her biggest issues are her parent's divorce when she was young, emotional incest from her mom (in the sense that she kind of got forced into the role of being her mother's spouse), emotional neglect from both her parents, and having her sense of self-worth constantly cut down by a mother who simultaneously relied on her for most of her emotional support from a young age. If anyone who also struggles with some of these issues could recommend episodes that were particularly helpful for them, I'd really appreciate it.

I posted something similar on the eating disorders board, because I'd also really like to be able to refer her to episodes about that, so if you have any favorite episodes that deal with binging without purging/compulsive overeating/eating disorders that lead to obesity, I'd also be curious to hear about those.

Thanks everyone! I love you all.

[Cami]

An episode that springs to mind is the one with Jonice Webb about emotional neglect. That was really helpful to me, personally. Webb's book Running on Empty is great too