YES! To everyone else me and my mom are the closest and have an amazing relationship. I would have agreed until the last few years. I’m 31 and in my first serious relationship for a few years now (I grew up very sheltered and isolated, my mother was an addict until my 20’s and my life was devoted to her and her problems). Ever since I started this relationship my moms true colors started to show, or at least everything started to make sense to me and it’s been very confusing and heartbreaking. She will sometimes be the old ‘loving’ mom and insist on giving me gifts and spending time together. I will share too much about my relationship thinking it’s safe to talk to her, only to have it thrown in my face in the next blow up she has. She blew up so bad recently while we were in the car I was afraid she’d run the car into traffic. Then she ran off threatening to kill herself. It all came back to my childhood and the threats of suicide, back then I excused everything because she was an addict and it wasn’t really ‘her’ or so I thought. When I called up other family members having a panic attack over what happened and explained to them they didn’t believe me. You’re so close! It can’t possibly be that bad your mom loves you so much! You’ve been through so much together! She also constantly makes little digs at me in front of my bf to the point where I was starting to feel it was a little weird. Then she’ll go back to being sweet as can be and offering gifts and to buy us dinner and the cycle goes on and on. Sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy or it’s really me that’s the problem. I do feel like I’m playing a part right now just to keep the peace. After she got clean now she uses her health issues to control me and guilt trip me into feeling sorry. The blow ups are spaced out enough that it almost makes me forget but when they happen I can’t believe how cold and mean she can be. I’m just afraid if my relationship progresses and she knows I will most likely be moving on with my own life and not only focused on her and her problems it’s going to escalate even more. Reading everyone else’s stories here has truly opened my eyes and is helping me cope with the reality of all this.