Anonymous wrote:Curious to the many posters. Do any of you get grief from other friends/family about the cut off? If so, how to handle? A lot of my friends and family, who don't know specifics and won't since I don't gossip, feel they can weigh in on my mom. Things like "this is so sad for her" "We are so worried about her"--this sort of thing. She is fine. I have now distanced myself from my very hometown. Frustrating.
I am estranged from my brother. He is a gossiper, and runs to others, including other family members, complaining about me, not telling the truth or the whole story, and conveniently leaving out all his lies, manipulations, and what I consider abusive behavior.
I simply do not discuss with others. I tell them that what's best for me, is to not have any relationship with him whatsoever, and that's that. I ignore & tune out conversation about him. I refuse to gossip and run to others - my confidence in my decision is sufficient. I hope that in time, people will come to respect that. If they don't, then I probably wasn't a very valuable person to them in the first place.