Amik wrote:
I feel like I don't really have a family and like I'm not really a part of my own family. I feel like a complete outsider in my family. I neither fit in with them nor do they treat me like a part of the family.
My family (as in parents and siblings) don't talk to me much or spend time with me or tell me about anything that's going on in their lives or in the family. On the rare occasion that they talk to me it seems to be more like them just checking if I'm still alive or them being polite rather than showing actual interest in me or my life or caring.
If I visit them or meet them somewhere and there is some other person there (be it another family member, a distant relative, their friend or a mere acquaintance), I'm automatically ignored and excluded and they keep talking to each other and ignore me if I try to join the conversation.
I never know what's going on in the family because nobody ever tells me about it, even though I ask them if there is anything new. They always seem to assume that somebody else has told me about everything, but when I have no idea about something that has been happening they laugh at me for not being up to date and ask me what planet I've been on. How the heck am I supposed to know about news that nobody tells me about?
The rest of my family is really close with each other, but not with me. They are even a lot closer to various relatives than to me. It feels kind of weird to see them treat my cousins and second cousins more like a part of the family than they treat me, and them being closer to them than they've ever been to me.
My husband has noticed the same thing about me not really being treated like a part of the family and he's even more upset about it than I am, so it's not just my imagination. I tried for years to become more involved with the family, by showing interest in them, meeting them more often, trying to talk to them, asking what's new and so on, but it didn't change a thing, so I gave up trying.
Do any of you experience the same thing, like you're not considered or treated like a part of your own family?
I can relate to much of this and have similar experiences but I put it down to me being an ex-con and alcoholic more than anything else... but my mistakes are due to my not fitting in so it's a vicious circle... My aunt betrayed my trust 18 years ago and told the parents of my young cousins I was or am a danger to them because of my condition so I ended up going downhill over the next few years and in prison by the end of the 2000's as a result.