My neigboors are at the hospital and I am afraid to see them

loreta

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
I need advice for this subject because I really don't know what to do.

My two neighbors, mother and daughter, are in the hospital. The mother is in the emergency section because she was spitting blood and the daughter because she broke her leg one day after her mother was interned.

These two women are very strange and I don't like them. I see that they are like two Siamese sisters, they do everything together, ALWAYS and they are also a sort of vampires. They drain your energy. It took me some months to learn about it and I had to cut the intimacy, specially with the daughter that was coming at home almost 5 times a day smoking her cigarettes because she was afraid to smoke in front of her mother. So she told me. But in fact this was not true. The daughter is a liar and she lied to me to manipulate my sentiments. With time I saw how liar she was, inventing how a victim she was of her mother and all her familly! But it was invented stories that she told just make me feel sorry for her. And she is 60 years old. To cut my relation with her was very difficult because I thought more of her then of me. But finally I was incapable to continue to see her, I was really feeling drained, tired, and manipulated. After reading a chapter of one of the books of Laura I understood that we feel sorry for that sort of people but it is necessary to cut the relation, and in fact the other person don't care at all. So I stopped my relation , asking her not to come anymore at home and I saw that she didn't care at all not to come anymore at home, and she started to smoke in front of her mother.

Now I continue to be in good terms with mother and daughter because they are my neighbors and it is important to be in good terms with your neighbors, in peace. So once in a while I go to take a coffee with them, and listen. They are the sort of people that see nobody. The daughter is like a little girl of 13 years, is incapable to live alone, maybe because her mother is a big controller, maybe because she is too lazy to fight for her life and her independence. In fact I think she was a spoiled kid and that's maybe she have psychological problems and her parents wanted to protect her. The fact is that I don't like to be with them, they are superficial, void. They just talk about what they have seen on tv. At the beginning I wanted to inform them a little about diet but they are incapable to listen. So I stop to talk, when with them.

So Monday the mother was, so another neighbor told me, sick spitting a little blood. They called the ambulance. And Tuesday the daughter broke her leg, needs to be operated. They are in the same hospital. One son is coming from Madrid today.

I feel very bad not wanting to see them, and I don't like to feel this emotion, it is like to see in me a very hard heart, my cold side, an egoistical and narcissistic side because I don't want to see these two women that drain energy. And I am afraid to be again manipulated. Is this a problem of control, from my part? But at the same time I know how alone they surely feel, but this is just an impression. In fact I know also that they are incapable to communicate, to have friends, to need friendship because is as they were living in a loop, just them together and that's all.

Do I have to go to visit them at the hospital? I am afraid that they will need me and this scares me very much. So this is my dilemma. I love to help people in need but that sort of people makes me anxious because I know how manipulative they are.

What do you think is the best way to deal with this situation? Should I keep my distance? Did you ever encounter this kind of situation?

Thanks for listening!
 
They are neighbors with whom you only have a casual relationship; it is not required that you visit them in hospital. Only if you are CLOSE friend or family. When they return from the hospital, you MIGHT give a basket of fruit or a casserole of some sort. But that's pretty much the limit of polite response-ability.
 
Laura said:
They are neighbors with whom you only have a casual relationship; it is not required that you visit them in hospital. Only if you are CLOSE friend or family. When they return from the hospital, you MIGHT give a basket of fruit or a casserole of some sort. But that's pretty much the limit of polite response-ability.

Thank you very much Laura for your answer. I will follow your advice that I appreciate very much!
 
I´m sorry to learn what you are going through, Loreta, and if it helps you to cool down a bit your frustration about what to do, then let me tell you that I´ve experienced this same kind of dilemma many times, before being able to notice how much and why it was affecting me.

Mmm, on one side it´s truer than ever that keeping a good relationship with neighbours can be of vital importance under these uncertain times.

Now I don´t think this applies to all of them. Because of the description you made of them, they don´t seem reliable persons, unless they are just living in their bubble, albeit still appreciating in some form other´s contribution to life.

But on the other side, if you visit them at the hopital, I wouldn´t disregard the fact that they could compromise youself a lot more into whatever task, which could be related to upmost personal stuff that only belongs to this family. You just don´t know, of course, but if they don´t have friends or family, you can expect anything will occur in that sense. In any case her son seems to be also available, so maybe a little white lie may keep you from exposing yourself too much, and attend to what your gut has been telling you so far in the first place.

I know it´s not easy at all to make a decision like when one feels he is negating help, like you are describing. Our ancestral beliefs about good and evil get us each time around this same dilemma and at the end others will end up making decisions on our behalf, leaving us unnecessarily anxious and worried.

Whatever you will do, I wish you the best.
 
Hi loreta,

When you know the address of the hospital and their room number(s) you could send specialized greeting cards wishing them speedy recovery and anything else you might want to add to make it an even more personalized token of compassionated interest.

Also, some hospitals allow patients to have personal phones with them or provide a temporary telephone set in loan. In that case you could directly phone your well wishing.

Maybe you even could do both with some interval in-between when they have to stay there for a prolonged time.

Just a few thoughts, FWIW.

Hope this helps a bit. :)
 
Palinurus said:
Hi loreta,

When you know the address of the hospital and their room number(s) you could send specialized greeting cards wishing them speedy recovery and anything else you might want to add to make it an even more personalized token of compassionated interest.

Also, some hospitals allow patients to have personal phones with them or provide a temporary telephone set in loan. In that case you could directly phone your well wishing.

Maybe you even could do both with some interval in-between when they have to stay there for a prolonged time.

Just a few thoughts, FWIW.

Hope this helps a bit. :)

Considering what Loreta has said about these neighbors, I don't think it is a good idea to encourage them to think there is a closeness that does not exist. They have family, so it's not like they are alone or abandoned. So, let's just leave it as I said on this one, thank you.
 
Laura said:
Palinurus said:
Hi loreta,

When you know the address of the hospital and their room number(s) you could send specialized greeting cards wishing them speedy recovery and anything else you might want to add to make it an even more personalized token of compassionated interest.

Also, some hospitals allow patients to have personal phones with them or provide a temporary telephone set in loan. In that case you could directly phone your well wishing.

Maybe you even could do both with some interval in-between when they have to stay there for a prolonged time.

Just a few thoughts, FWIW.

Hope this helps a bit. :)

Considering what Loreta has said about these neighbors, I don't think it is a good idea to encourage them to think there is a closeness that does not exist. They have family, so it's not like they are alone or abandoned. So, let's just leave it as I said on this one, thank you.

I want to thank you Laura because your advice are from objectivity, putting me in terra firma.

And thank you Palinurus and Hesperides. Your advice are very but I will keep my distance.

Thank you again. :)
 
I definitely agree with the diagnosis on this one.

I'd only add that when cutting energy feeding ties, sometimes the forces behind the curtain up the ante.

I find it interesting that after you cut ties, they suddenly "needed" extra attention with their drama involving sickness and hospitals and such. They may be on some level extending their web of sympathy capture.
 
Hi loreta, Laura's advice is best. Keep your distance, yet be polite by sending something over when they get home. Beware of your empathy or pity getting the better of you, because that is what they will tap into for sure. I would have some handy excuses ready at hand, just in case they prevail upon you when they get back. There are times to be hospitable, but not when you're dealing with predators. Take care loreta!
 
Thank you! And I am so happy that I had the courage to ask for help in this situation. I am learning to ask, this is very good for me, good sign! :) And I follow the advice of Laura.

They are really predators, and these days reading the thread of Dabrowski I can see also they are robots, without compassion nor love. Yesterday the daughter came back, she was so happy to be unable to do anything during 3 months. They will take a woman to do everything at home during 3 months. As Laura advice, I brought some fruits in a beautiful bag, listened and studied the daughter and felt also very happy to had seen how she is, knowledge protects, really! And I can see that to have a group like this one, this forum, is the only way to grow and learn.
 
loreta said:
These two women are very strange and I don't like them. ..

.... they are also a sort of vampires.
....They drain your energy.
.... I am afraid to be again manipulated.
Instinct acts as a great lie detector, this is an important instinct for social perception and should trust him more.
Your instinct is in the start told all. :) :) :)
 
It´s great that your neighbours can afford a woman for the house cleaning and else so that you won´t be so easily present in their mind each time they find themselves in a precarious situation.

Furthermore, this could offer an interesting way for you to see how they treat her. It´s likely that you´ll get some echo over time. :ohboy:
People like them always leave hurting imprints in their surrounding. My two cents!
 
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