Dear Father;
No one would deny that you have been highly supportive of me throughout my entire life; you provided for all of my material needs and wants, made sure that I did well in school, supported me in my extra-circulars, and did you best to ensure my general happiness. You are a pretty good father as far as fathers go, I must say.
That being said, you are also emotionally abusive.
I have tried to deny this for years. For so long, it was "just his style of communication," "just the way he is," and "just the consequence of being an older father whose wife got deported to another country and who got stuck with a 'special' child he never planned for in the first place because he thought the woman was done producing eggs." I get that you never wanted to be in this situation; I get that this is hard on you. I get that you never signed up for this. I get it, really. For so long, I prefaced so many of your words and actions with, "Now, I don't think that my father is abusive or anything, but..."; for so long, I did all that I could to ensure that therapists would remark on what a good, supportive, caring father you are. And you are all of that, I suppose. But when you yell at your daughter for any display of negative emotion (and some displays of positive emotion, at that), when you chase her to her room and demand that she open the damn door even when you know that she is trembling and crying on the other side, when your daughter tells you repeatedly that she is afraid of you, when you tell her so many times how disgusting and incapable and abnormal she is, when she sobs right in front of you and you, when not yelling at her, do nothing, when the school counselor called you in due to her suicidal remarks and you do nothing for another year until it happens the second time around, even though others have been saying that she needed therapy since she was a young child, when you always find something to be upset about, something to raise your voice over, even though the previous nineteen years of experience should have taught you that anger only makes her more anxious...
Maybe it's not abuse, but I can't think of another way to phrase it. Incompatible personalities? Perhaps. But when you barge into her room after she, still sobbing, reluctantly unlocks the door, when you angrily tear open the closet door that she hid herself behind and demand that she gets her ass out, goddammit...
Maybe emotional neglect is a better way to put it. They told you years ago that it was a developmental delay or autism; shouldn't that have been enough time to learn, to research, to realize that the way you act, the way you yell, the way you curse and holler simply isn't going to work with such a sensitive creature? It never has, father, and that isn't going to change over night. Look, I get that I'm frustrating. I get that I worry too much over things I shouldn't. I get that I'm not a "normal" teenager and that that worries you immensely. I get that you worry that you may have to look after me for the rest of your ever-ending life and that this terrifies you. I get that you're older, that you should be retired and childless by now, that you should be relaxing. I get that you expected me to have "grown out of it" by now. I get that I terrify you. I get that I'm killing you slowly, and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I am. I never meant to do this to you, never meant to be such an unwelcome intrusion on your happiness. I get that I quite possibly ruined your life, though I know that you'd never admit that. At least not directly. But there's many times...
Maybe it's me after all. I'm willing to admit that. I'm willing to admit that I'm not the easiest daughter to have, that I'm not something a sixty-seven year old man with tiring knees and a heart condition should have been stuck with.
But when your daughter is left questioning whether you really love her or if you just do the supportive, caring things that you do because society mandates it, when your daughter lives in constant fear of disappointing you, when every muscle in her body tenses up when she hears your voice, when she's left convinced that you secretly loathe her, something is going on.
Call it abuse; call it emotional neglect; call it being stuck; call it whatever you like, but it is evident that something isn't working.
And I can't live like this for much longer.
You never abused me physically in any manner, but the following from Cocorosie's song "Werewolf" still applies;
"I don't mean to close the door
But for the record my heart is sore
You blew through me like bullet holes
Left stains on my sheets and stains on my soul "
Right now, I'm dependent on you, and I'm grateful for all that you provide, really, but, sooner or later, you're going to start seeing me less and less.
I'm sorry for everything.
"I'm a shake you off, though
Get up on that horse and
Ride into the sunset
Look back with no remorse"
Sincerely,
These Stains Won't Come Clean Easily
_________________
I am not a textbook case of any particular disorder; I am an abstract, poetic portrayal of neurovariance with which much artistic license was taken.