[Rant?] I need to get this off my chest and some advice if anyone has any.

Wow, how frustrating. If you don't mind:

I've dealt with a controlling mother all of my life. Her insecurities became my anxiety disorder when it stacked on to all the trauma I have experienced. I have learned that her emotions did not mean my Universe needed to exist as hers did and I started letting those issues have less of an affect on me.

What is very, very important here is to understand that every human has rules and beliefs about the Universe - she is violating your rules and it's pissing you the fuck off. Rightly so, in my humble opinion. So how to stop it?

Well, take a step back and look at her. If you want it to stop, you can understand where she is coming from and work from compassion instead of anger.

It will confuse her but she EXPECTS you to get angry, argumentative and as nasty as she is because that is her model of the Universe - to be in perpetual torment and expect the worst. So she creates scenarios where she will be in turmoil and in this case, it's her trying to destroy your success out of jealousy/envy and a never-ending unhappiness in her soul.

So, with that:

  1. She cares. She has a very irrational way of expressing it but her fear is that her son and you, by proxy, are suffering... because she is. Always. So you MUST be suffering. It's irrational but it's real to her and clearly it doesn't matter if it makes any sense or not. Better that she is meddlesome than not ever saying anything at all. She wants you two to be successful.
  2. However, her idea of success is fucked. Until she learns what you are doing she will continue to believe, irrationally, that you two are harming yourself. How to undo her belief?
  3. Expose her to the science in a compassionate manner with the understanding that you know she cares but she also has to understand that what works for your body/lives is NOT what works for her.
  4. Instead of internalizing her problems set them back on her. Questions such as

Why do you refuse to support us?

or

Would you please explain why you continue to try and sabotage our success? Is it because you are afraid that this really works for us and you do not want to see us happy? That doesn't sound like a loving thing to do to another human.

And most importantly and possibly the most difficult:

  1. Step back from your anger and realize that she is a human being in distress and is lashing out. There is a reason for her anger and it isn't your fault. She needs hugs, not anger. I understand you are angry but you also have the power to not feed into her bullshit by continuing the cycle. You cannot fix what is causing her to be so nasty to you guys but you can fix how you choose to respond to it.

So do you choose compassion or anger?

You have every right to be angry. You are not powerless. For every moment that she tries to control you understand it is because she is a woman who feels so out of control inside that she could not possibly fathom success, for herself or for her son/daughter-in-law, because she doesn't believe it should happen.

You can't fix that irrationality but you can soothe it over with loving acts instead of anger.

And if she still treats you guys like shit, one final rule:

No matter what title she claims you two are human beings who deserve respect and to be treated with dignity. And if she cannot do that after you expressedly tell her your emotional needs then she can fuck right off. :)

Best of luck and love to you both.

/r/keto Thread