Having trouble in making decisions

Marina9

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Hello everyone!

I've not been active for the past couple of months, since im going through a lot of changes and stuff going on. Right now im in therapy for bulimia nervosa, a disease i found out has nothing to do with my body but with all the feelings and problems i had with an absent dad when i was a child. This problem has been going on and off, but if i wasn't throwing up, I exercised a lot or party or drank, or any other thing that made me absent in the real world.

Thankfuly i found this therapy and group of girls that have the same problems so we all share them, talk about it and learn from the other ones. Right now i have been one month doing the right thing, eating well and not purging, but my self esteem and other problems like decision taking and not thinking everyhting in black and white are still there. This is happening with my actual job, that it seems as if i can't leave it no matter what. My therapist recommended me to take care of myself and my school, and put the job thing aside for now, but all this guilt feeling arise and i don't know how to handle them. A couple of hours ago i talked to my boss since she noticed that i've been quite off, but it is was also because im an intern, and have to work just for 4 hours, and i started working more and more leaving school behind the past semester, so they realized that i was overdoing stuff and had to get paid more, but they didn't do anything about it, and for now, they're still keeping me as an intern. The trouble i have is to tell them i don't find it fare for them to be this way, but it also makes me feel bad since i was taught from my dad that the most important thing is to work and be "succesful"....

On the other hand i study journalism and now im thinking its a waste of time not putting the attention to school, reading, and nurturing myself, for this work i really don't like that much.. but that thing of guilt keeps buzzing in my head. My boss was saying that all the great things i had done in the past were now shattered by my absent behaviour, and that also made me feel bad. I'm struggling in taking the decision, i certainly know i would rather take care of my health, my school and to learn more about what i really like than staying in this job.. but find it very difficult not to think about the guilt or feeling as if i failed in something and what they will think of me.
 
marinarm2890 said:
On the other hand i study journalism and now im thinking its a waste of time not putting the attention to school, reading, and nurturing myself, for this work i really don't like that much.. but that thing of guilt keeps buzzing in my head. My boss was saying that all the great things i had done in the past were now shattered by my absent behaviour, and that also made me feel bad. I'm struggling in taking the decision, i certainly know i would rather take care of my health, my school and to learn more about what i really like than staying in this job.. but find it very difficult not to think about the guilt or feeling as if i failed in something and what they will think of me.

Hi Marinarm, It sounds like studying is what you see as being the best choice. I think this boss may not be so interested in what is best for you. I remember once a long time ago I was studying full-time, and then I also went to a job interview for a job that was about 25 hours a week. I already knew the person who was interviewing me, and he told me during the interview that he wasn't even going to consider me for the job, because he thought it would take too much time from my studying which he thought I should concentrate on. Looking back that seems like quite a considerate thing for him to do.
 
I agree with what Mal7 said and that your boss is not concerned with what is best for you, but what is best for your boss.

Something else to consider is that making others feel guilty is a really good way to manipulate them. And, feeling guilty is a way for your inner predator to keep you doing what is not good for you.

Instead of worrying about what those at your job may feel about you leaving, you should, instead, be seeing leaving this job as working towards your destiny. You would be doing what is right for you in the future. You are not responsible for other people, but for yourself. Just because you leave a job doesn't mean that the world will end.

marinarm2890 said:
My boss was saying that all the great things i had done in the past were now shattered by my absent behaviour, and that also made me feel bad.

That is totally manipulation and your "guilt" program kicking in, which is what you boss was hoping for.

marinarm2890 said:
I'm struggling in taking the decision, i certainly know i would rather take care of my health, my school and to learn more about what i really like than staying in this job..

Your therapist is also saying this, right? I think that you need to do what you know is right and for your destiny rather than to let someone else control you with manipulation and guilt. Don't let others take over your life by letting your guilt program run things.
 
Yes, my therapist has the same idea about this. Yesterday after writing this in the forum I felt a bit of relief as putting everything out. And yes for a minute she did made me feel bad, but afterwards i was laughing about what she said, my brother also told me that she was manipulating everything to make me feel worse.

Thats something i have, not giving myself permission to decide what i really want and i feel i have to do stuff to make people happy, this things im working on and taking it step by step :)

Thank you both very much!!!
 
marinarm2890 said:
The trouble i have is to tell them i don't find it fare for them to be this way, but it also makes me feel bad since i was taught from my dad that the most important thing is to work and be "succesful"....

[...]

I'm struggling in taking the decision, i certainly know i would rather take care of my health, my school and to learn more about what i really like than staying in this job.. but find it very difficult not to think about the guilt or feeling as if i failed in something and what they will think of me.

I agree with others that your health, school work and following your aims there sound like the most important thing right now. As Nienna wrote, guilt is often used to manipulate and ultimately keeps us where we are, nothing changes. There should be no guilt I think in your acting in favor of getting a healthy balance back and learning the skills to take you forward.

If in the process of acting in favor of your destiny you also learn how to counteract the unhelpful feelings of guilt and failure, then this would be a real work, and real success I think.
 
Thanks very much to all, finally i took the step and faced my boss about this. It felt as a big weight was taken off me :) and now, as you all say, the best thing is to focus in my health and learning more about life day by day..

Sharing things in the forum has helped me to also read myself and laugh about it.. at the end, everything is an experience, and yes, my work will never define me as a person.

:D :D :D
 
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