Organic Portals: Human variation

[WIN 52]

Two days of examination have brought me to the conclusion that my wife of 24 years is an OP.

A woman with a heart of gold, going above and beyond to help others. Had us on a vegetarian diet and she made healthy choices a part of our life. I did suspect I was where she drew her strength from, but I was willing and I felt I had enough for both of us. After 20 years, things began to break down because I started standing firm against the energy drain, that I had no ideas about the mechanics of. I stopped feeding her and she kicked me out saying "what is mine is mine and what is yours is mine."

I would have been gratefull for some information on the subject before getting married. I did have some feelings that I was making a mistake by marrying her. I thought this was natural and considered it to be cold feet. The thing was that I did know, but I didn't understand what I knew.

The clues:
Did not cry for happy or sad endings of movies. She would tease me because I would be in a wash of tears. Later on she would shed a few, but only if I broke down crying. I always thought of her as being strong. Even when her brother was killed at 28 yrs of age, she did not show the emotions I or her sister did. She did cry, but also seemed like a pillar of strength, by not being emotional. Her dad's passing was the same. Her Mom and Sister always came and cleaned her house. She would purposely not do housework and she would let it pile up as her mom and sister would come in and fix it.

 

[shijing]

The clues:
Did not cry for happy or sad endings of movies. She would tease me because I would be in a wash of tears. Later on she would shed a few, but only if I broke down crying. I always thought of her as being strong. Even when her brother was killed at 28 yrs of age, she did not show the emotions I or her sister did. She did cry, but also seemed like a pillar of strength, by not being emotional. Her dad's passing was the same. Her Mom and Sister always came and cleaned her house. She would purposely not do housework and she would let it pile up as her mom and sister would come in and fix it.

The traits that you list above seem as though they could have multiple explanations -- based on what you have read on the forum or from Laura's essays on the topic, why would you consider any of them as data that would specifically identify your wife as an OP? It is always possible that your wife could be an OP, but I think that it is difficult to establish this based on this kind of evidence.

I think that the point that you raise about intuition is valid -- there is something to be said for listening to your gut feeling. But this will probably be true for a range of people, including individually souled people whom we should nevertheless stay away from if their impact on us will be negative.

 

[anart]

Hi Win - there is a difference between having a shut down emotional center and being an OP. I cannot stress enough - and I have written this many, many times on this forum - that we cannot tell an OP from an individual with the seed of a soul. OPs cry at movies, OPs don't cry at movies, OPs cry at deaths, are very emotional, or are not emotional at all. OPs, across the board, are as normal, nay, more normal, than the most normal human being you will ever meet.

It sounds like your wife has an underdeveloped or shut down emotional center, this does not mean she is an OP, nor does it mean she is not. In other words, whether or not she is an OP is rather irrelevant since you can't know. I'm sorry you are going through this difficult time - it might be worthwhile to spend less time thinking about whether or not she is an OP and more time thinking about how her personality has manifested, since that seems to be the problem. At the end of the day, we can't change someone else, all we can do is learn.

Two days of examination have brought me to the conclusion that my wife of 24 years is an OP.

A woman with a heart of gold, going above and beyond to help others. Had us on a vegetarian diet and she made healthy choices a part of our life. I did suspect I was where she drew her strength from, but I was willing and I felt I had enough for both of us. After 20 years, things began to break down because I started standing firm against the energy drain, that I had no ideas about the mechanics of. I stopped feeding her and she kicked me out saying "what is mine is mine and what is yours is mine."

I would have been gratefull for some information on the subject before getting married. I did have some feelings that I was making a mistake by marrying her. I thought this was natural and considered it to be cold feet. The thing was that I did know, but I didn't understand what I knew.

The clues:
Did not cry for happy or sad endings of movies. She would tease me because I would be in a wash of tears. Later on she would shed a few, but only if I broke down crying. I always thought of her as being strong. Even when her brother was killed at 28 yrs of age, she did not show the emotions I or her sister did. She did cry, but also seemed like a pillar of strength, by not being emotional. Her dad's passing was the same. Her Mom and Sister always came and cleaned her house. She would purposely not do housework and she would let it pile up as her mom and sister would come in and fix it.

 

[WIN 52]

She wants me back now.

She showed all sorts of emotion and would not even get out of bed for more than a year after I left. The verbal abuse my son took forced him to come and live with me a week after I left. Both my son and daughter keep her at arms length now and they think she is psycho. Their words not mine.

The emotion was tyrannical in nature, it seemed. Probably at the loss of my energy as she seemed to go downhill once I began blocking the energy drain. I still felt bad about our divorce, till I have been able to get some correct information about the issues I was dealing with. Right now, I am not mad at her or likely never will be, but more disgusted with my own lack of trust in my intuitions or feelings about the initial stages of our relationship. She is still a good person, it seems, and I wish her well on her walk.

She always claimed to be a black sheep in her family. She may have been close to the mark.

 

[WIN 52]

Sijing - I have only started to work to understand all these concepts. Things I write, I do go back and reflect on. I also made this observation about what I had written. The comments other people bring are also helpfull, as I only have a few answers with many more questions.

I am still not 100% sure a label is possible and I digress about those comments.

I also know that there was another option my intuition was hinting at. This is what I need to bring my focus on. What is going on internally, when making worldly choices. To be able to trust that inner voice enough to pull out and pass a big truck on a blind corner.

 

[eschaton]

Re: Organic Portals, the \

Is it possible for a question to be posed to the Cs about David Hawkins? I've read his books and listened to some of his lectures. He claims his own books calibrate in the high 900s (according to his logarithmic scale of consciousness) - but he seems to make statements that don't jive with heightened awareness/consciousness.

I will note, though, that while so many whale and dolphin lovers go around claiming the cetaceans are saving the world or raising the consciousness of the world, etc., Hawkins rated them pretty low on his consciousness scale - to the fury of many cetacean-lovers. Teehee. And I believe the Cs gave short shrift to the cetaceans-as-higher-beings theory too...

Curious as to what the Cs would say about Hawkins.

 

[Vulcan59]

Re: Organic Portals, the \

Hi eschaton,

Try doing a Search here on the forum about David Hawkins and you will find quite a few hits. :)

 

[shijing]

Sijing - I have only started to work to understand all these concepts. Things I write, I do go back and reflect on. I also made this observation about what I had written. The comments other people bring are also helpfull, as I only have a few answers with many more questions.

That's fine, WIN 52 -- I merely wanted to bring the point home that it is truly difficult to identify OPs as such, since it was discussed quite a bit just above and based on what you wrote, I wasn't sure if you had fully come to terms with this fact.

I also know that there was another option my intuition was hinting at. This is what I need to bring my focus on. What is going on internally, when making worldly choices. To be able to trust that inner voice enough to pull out and pass a big truck on a blind corner.

That is more of the central issue I think -- whether or not your wife is an OP is largely beside the point. The really important issue for you seems to be how your interactions with her have affected you and your children, how you will deal with that, and what you are learning from it. That is something worth exploring further with the network here, should you ever want to examine it more closely on whichever thread is appropriate :)

 

[findit]

I finished reading the book "Breakthrough to Creativity" by Shafica Karagulla written in 1967. I only saw one other post about her in the forum. She dealt with what she called the "Higher Sense Perception" and the book talks frequently about energy fields and people who she called sensitives that were able to see these fields. What I wasn't expecting to find and what relates to this topic is the following taken from pages 162-170:

"A number of the sensitives with whom I have worked have made repeated observations on individuals which we have come to designate as the "Sappers." There are certain people who do not seem to be able to pick up their own energy from the surrounding ocean of energy which the sensitives describe. They appear to take their energy "pre-digested" from the people in their immediate vicinity. The sensitives see and describe this process. A number of the best sensitives with whom I have worked have given exactly similar descriptions. After much psychological and psychiatric observation, I have discovered that those whom the sensitives and I have come to call "sappers" are practically always very self-centered individuals.
The sensitives describe the sappers as having closed-in energy fields. Such individuals may be totally unaware of their energy pull on other people. They simply feel better when they are in the company of more vital people. Any individual who remains in the vicinity of the sapper for too long begins to feel desparately exhausted for no reason that he can understand. This baffles and bewilders him. Eventually a deep instinct of self-preservation causes the victim of the sapper to feel an irresistable desire to get away. He may attribute this to any one of a number of reasons. By the time this happens he is usually feeling an unreasoning irritation with the sapper.
As soon as the victim of the sapper has escaped and begins to feel better, he looks at his recent behavior as being rather unreasonable. He blames himself for being irritable with no apparent cause. Often a kind of self-imposed penance causes him to go back again with a determination to be more pleasant or cordial. In such a case he is drained again, irritable again and troubled by self-accusation again. He does not realize that his irritability and unreasoning desire to get away is due to serious exhaustion and that nature comes to his rescue by urging escape from the situation.
Where the sapper is in the family circle or closely associated in business or as a friend, there is a bewildering problem. On the part of the victim this cycle of escape, self censure and return for another energy pull is repeated over and over again. The victim is bewildered and confused. He may consult the family doctor about his exhaustion and irritability, if he is in such a situation for long periods of time. The doctor probably finds no actual physical ailment and both patient and doctor are puzzled.
Some of these sappers pull energy from almost anyone in their vicinity. Others seem to be able to pull energy more easily from only certain people. The simply selfish person who wants things for himself or the attention of other people is not usually a sapper. He may be exasperating for other reasons. It is the self-centered person enclosed in his own orbit who lacks outgoingness to other people and the outside world. He seems to shut off his contact with the ocean of energy around him. Kay once referred to this type of individual as a psychological parasite, using the mental, emotional and vital energies of other people.
Further observations and experiments on this problem of the sapper gave some more detailed insight. Since this phenomenon produces a very definite effect on the physical energy, I asked the sensitives to observe the vortices of energy which they see in the energy or vital body. It developed that the energy pull from a victim is usually via the weakest vortex. An individual with a disturbed energy vortex at the heart area appears to lose energy by way of that particular vortex. An individual with the vortex at the throat area showing weakness or disturbance shows an energy pull through the channel of the throat vortex.
There are several methods, according to the sensitives, by which sappers may pull energy. Some sappers appear to pull energy by using the voice. The extremely self-centered person who is a compulsive talker pulls the energy of his victim, whose attention he has gained, simply by talking. If the victim listens long enough his vital field and even his emotional and mental fields will begin to wilt, grow dull and show a general condition which to the sensitive means he is very exhausted. The more exhausted he becomes the more difficult it is for him to exert the will force to escape.
Some sappers appear to use the eyes to pull energy. They look with a quiet, steady, unbroken focus at their victim. The victim gradually becomes tired, restless, has an unreasoning desire to escape, and may begin to be irritable. When this type of sapper is part of a group the discomfort to any one victim is slight and his effect on the people present is therefore less apparent.
In this connection the observations made on one particular sapper, who appeared to the sensitive to pull energy by a quiet steady gaze, proved very interesting. Carrie often complained of being lonely and a lack of social contacts. When she invited people to her house they made excuses. Those who went to dinner with her once seemed to avoid a second invitation. She complained to her friends and acquaintances and frequently asked the psychological counsellor what she did to offend people. She is a polite, well-bred person but extremely self-centered.
About this time we began our observations on her, one of her acquaintances and his wife accepted an invitation to dinner at her home. In the small group it was easier to observe what happened. His wife had recently recovered from a serious illness. He himself was exuberantly healthy. The other two people present and observing the situation were also in an excellent state of health. The guests arrived at Carrie's home feeling well and in good spirits. As the evening progressed the young wife who had just recovered from an illness became more and more pale and exhausted. The husband began to feel tired and depressed. The two observers fought the energy pull but were aware of fatigue. The evening dragged. Eventually the young wife with much chagrin said that she did not feel well, blamed it on her recent illness and regretted that she must leave early. Her husband had to assist her to get her out of the chair and walk to the car.
The husband had had some contact with the research that was being done and although Carrie's name had not been mentioned in this connection, he concluded that he and his wife must have been the victims of a serious energy drain on Carrie's part. Since the work was confidential, it was not possible to discuss this with him. Those in an already weakened state always seem to be more distressed and more easily drained by the sapper. Numerous observations of Carrie on the part of several sensitives confirmed that her guests were the victims of this sapping process. Carrie was not aware of this. She simply felt exhilirated and in good spirits after an evening with guests.
A number of observations of Carrie at social events in the homes of other people proved interesting. At a cocktail party or reception she did not make much effort to circulate or to talk to people. Instead she usually established herself in a comfortable chair with a good view of the people present. She would sit quietly with a pleasant dreamy look on her face and her eyes focused with quiet intensity on one person after another. As time went by she would show a flush in her cheeks and a general brightness and alertness. She would appear to change from a rather dull, pinched, complaining woman to a person who looked attractive and vital. She could remain for hours in her chair making no particular effort at conversation or personal contact with other guests. By the end of the evening when she was ready to make her departure she was vital and sparkling. She always made a point of telling her hostess over and over again with great enthusiasm what a perfectly wonderful evening she had had. In spite of this some hostesses dropped her from their list because, as they put it, she did not make any effort to contribute by conversation or otherwise to the social evening.
I recall one of my patients who was a victim of this sapping process. Lorraine was a very vivacious and energetic young woman who showed more than the normal amount of vitality and enthusiasm for living. Over a period of several years she began to be afflicted with a peculiar type of exhaustion which neither my colleagues nor I could diagnose. Periodically over a period of months she would gradually become more and more exhausted until she came to the point where she actually could not get out of bed. When things reached this stage the attending physician would put her in the hospital for observation. All kinds of tests revealed nothing physically wrong. During a week in the hospital she would make an amazing recovery and become her normal vital self again. Within a period of four to six months she was back in the hospital for observation. Psychiatric treatment revealed no particular problem.
I finally determined to observe Lorraine in her home, and accepted an invitation for a long weekend with her. By the end of my stay I had a pretty good idea of what was wrong and later the observation of one of my sensitives confirmed my surmise. As a matter of a fact, I was very exhausted myself by the end of my visit. A near relative in the household who insisted on remaining very close to my patient at all times was the sapper.
The relative in Lorraine's household appeared to be most amiable and constantly remarked how much better she felt when she was around Lorraine. Lorraine exhibited the usual pattern of the victim of the sapper. When she became too exhausted she was irritable and made an effort to get away on some pretext. When she was out of the house for awhile she was baffled by her mood and with her energy restored she felt guilty about her irritabilty. She had a very real affection for the relative and could not understand her irritation.
I was able to discuss this situation with Lorraine and to suggest that frequent short absenses from the house and the relative's presence would give her a chance to recover her energy. She was able to avoid spending hours at a time in the relative's vicinity with out causing a problem in the household. When the relative took a trip abroad and remained in Europe, Lorraine recovered completely and had no more recurring attacks of extreme exhaustion.
I was convinced from a psychiatric point of view that Lorraine in no way resented the relative being in her home. I explained to Lorraine that her overwhelming desire to get away from the vicinity of her relative was probably nature's effort at self-preservation. The sensitive who observed Lorraine and her relative could see the drain on Lorraine's energy fields which resulted in her states of exhausiton. My observations on this type of phenomena are not conclusive but they do indicate a direction for further research.
It was from Diane that I got the best description of what happens when a sapper pulls energy from his victim. Laura and Kay have made similar observations independently of each other. The sensitives describe a rather wide opening in the solar plexus area of the sapper in his vital field. Around the edges of this opening streamers or tentacles appear to shoot out and hook into the field of an individual in close proximity. The sapper often seems to have a desire to touch the person whom he is draining of energy or else to be as near as possible to him. There is a whole group of sappers who drain other people in this way simply by being near them. Those who drain their victims by the use of voice or the eyes do not need to be in such close proximity.
A psychological evaluation of the sapper shows an individual who often speaks the language of altruism volubly. He will often talk a great deal about his concern and kindly interest in friends and acquaintances who are his victims. He will assure you that he he would do anything for them, that they are wonderful people and they do him so much good. It requires some careful observation to realize that the sapper is nearly always extremely self-centered. He probably does not realize this himself, and he may be completely unaware of what he actually does to other people around him.
As a psychiatrist I can only observe the behavior of human beings and endeavor to analyze their problems and motives. The observations of Diane, Laura, Kay and other sensitives certainly give an intriguing slant on the interplay of human minds and emotions. One of these days we may devise scientific means for observing these energy fields which are a matter of daily observation to the sensitive.
Psychology and psychiatry have certainly not reached the stage of an organized science as yet. The observations of those with Higher Sense Perception may give further explanation and meaning to much that we do not yet understand. Any type of human ability that repeatedly manifests in a definite pattern has validity and value. These observations of the sensitives cannot be ignored and they may prove to be an important key to future developments."

 

[Lauranimal]

Thanks for posting this exerpt, findit.

It is nothing new to me, and I know that many of us have caught on to this in various ways. (LKJ brought it up in the Wave in describing her observations of kids in a schoolyard, from the silence of her car)

Since I work in a service industry, my everyday experience of this is that 70% of the customers we have know that our commitment to customer service is a core value. They take advantage of this, thinking that they have a captive audience who's job it is to 'feed' them energy. We call them Energy Vampires, and certainly some of them are worse than others. Impossible to escape them, but I make a point of teaching my team techniques for politely showing them (whenever possible) a healthy boundary.

I have observed it and felt it so often and from so many, that I have more or less removed myself from interaction with the bulk of society. (outside of my job) It is not because I am a snob. It is not because I do not like or love certain people. It is plane and simply self preservation. I am already exhausted, struggling with my health and barely making it through each day.

The other part of that is that, on so many occasions in my life, I have managed to hook up with these very people! The one's who just completely drain you of your life force and manipulate and create emotionally devastating situations, that I don't trust my judgment anymore. Its like there is a target painted on my forehead!!! While I have gained a great deal of awareness and knowledge, I cannot be sure that it is yet enough to overcome my "be nice" program. So... for now.... just staying pretty isolated.

Sadly, through-out this process of removing myself from the 'buffet', I have also managed to shut down my heart-center and I am having profound difficulty kick-starting my emotional center. The last devastation that I went through was soooo severe, that after grieving and feeling it all so profoundly ... I think I reached a point where I knew that the only way I could continue to function, was to shut down the emotions entirely.(not really a conscious decision, just something that happened and I am looking back and observing it) And so, I have become more mechanical. And have little motivation to do the things i know will rekindle that ability to feel everything so deeply, again.

I'm scared. So many psychopaths, characteropaths and Vampires in general out there. And I am not so sure that as a traumatized individual, that I am not one of them.

Feeling pretty sad and lost in this FUBAR world.

 

[judyanderson12]

Thanks for posting this exerpt, findit.

It is nothing new to me, and I know that many of us have caught on to this in various ways. (LKJ brought it up in the Wave in describing her observations of kids in a schoolyard, from the silence of her car)

Since I work in a service industry, my everyday experience of this is that 70% of the customers we have know that our commitment to customer service is a core value. They take advantage of this, thinking that they have a captive audience who's job it is to 'feed' them energy. We call them Energy Vampires, and certainly some of them are worse than others. Impossible to escape them, but I make a point of teaching my team techniques for politely showing them (whenever possible) a healthy boundary.

I have observed it and felt it so often and from so many, that I have more or less removed myself from interaction with the bulk of society. (outside of my job) It is not because I am a snob. It is not because I do not like or love certain people. It is plane and simply self preservation. I am already exhausted, struggling with my health and barely making it through each day.

The other part of that is that, on so many occasions in my life, I have managed to hook up with these very people! The one's who just completely drain you of your life force and manipulate and create emotionally devastating situations, that I don't trust my judgment anymore. Its like there is a target painted on my forehead!!! While I have gained a great deal of awareness and knowledge, I cannot be sure that it is yet enough to overcome my "be nice" program. So... for now.... just staying pretty isolated.

Sadly, through-out this process of removing myself from the 'buffet', I have also managed to shut down my heart-center and I am having profound difficulty kick-starting my emotional center. The last devastation that I went through was soooo severe, that after grieving and feeling it all so profoundly ... I think I reached a point where I knew that the only way I could continue to function, was to shut down the emotions entirely.(not really a conscious decision, just something that happened and I am looking back and observing it) And so, I have become more mechanical. And have little motivation to do the things i know will rekindle that ability to feel everything so deeply, again.

I'm scared. So many psychopaths, characteropaths and Vampires in general out there. And I am not so sure that as a traumatized individual, that I am not one of them.

Feeling pretty sad and lost in this FUBAR world.

FWIW, I identify totally with your post, but see it as an opportunity to grow in awareness -- knowledge protects. In my massage experience, there are certain people who bodily should not be difficult to work on, but after a session with them, I'm DRAINED and always feeling irritated. I don't enjoy seeing their name on my appointment calendar. However, the way I see this is a magnification of what goes on in each of our lives and an opportunity to make choices. When do I have the choice of who I spend time with? How and what do I do to "shield" myself from their efforts to feed off of my energy? Again, I believe knowledge protects and intention is very powerful. We intend our sovereignty in situations where we come face to face with the "sappers." :)

 

[anart]

The other part of that is that, on so many occasions in my life, I have managed to hook up with these very people! The one's who just completely drain you of your life force and manipulate and create emotionally devastating situations, that I don't trust my judgment anymore.

It sounds like you're describing what I, and many of us, have gone through as well.

Its like there is a target painted on my forehead!!! While I have gained a great deal of awareness and knowledge, I cannot be sure that it is yet enough to overcome my "be nice" program. So... for now.... just staying pretty isolated.

Yep, I did as well, as I worked through understanding why I repeated the dynamic in my life of involving myself with 'feeders' - it took years to start to get to the bottom of it. I didn't trust my judgment and still don't completely, though I know myself more now, so I'm learning to have a bit of faith in my impressions - but it took a long time and a lot of work to get to even that point.

Sadly, through-out this process of removing myself from the 'buffet', I have also managed to shut down my heart-center and I am having profound difficulty kick-starting my emotional center. The last devastation that I went through was soooo severe, that after grieving and feeling it all so profoundly ... I think I reached a point where I knew that the only way I could continue to function, was to shut down the emotions entirely.(not really a conscious decision, just something that happened and I am looking back and observing it) And so, I have become more mechanical. And have little motivation to do the things i know will rekindle that ability to feel everything so deeply, again.

I was the same, I closed down my most vulnerable aspect, thinking that was a way to avoid the pain. It, of course, wasn't. I found that EE really helped open things up again there and helped me get a stronger line on what I had been doing to myself and why over the years. It's still in progress, but, for me at least, EE was instrumental in opening up the emotions again (though it was, at times, a very bumpy ride, after being shut down for so long).

I'm scared. So many psychopaths, characteropaths and Vampires in general out there. And I am not so sure that as a traumatized individual, that I am not one of them.

Feeling pretty sad and lost in this FUBAR world.

I think there is a lot less for you to be scared about now than there was a few years ago. You now have access to knowledge that, if applied, gives you protection, and weapons to use to stalk those internal demons in order to minimize their call to predators. I think you're on your way - and that if you utilize the full EE program, that your emotional center is going to kick in and give you more fuel for all aspects of your life and learning. There is a lot of reason for people to be sad right now, but when it comes down to it, here we are - this is our opportunity to grow and learn, no matter how painful - so what else is there to do other than get on with it to the best of our ability? Feeling sad is okay, in fact, it might be important - just try to not let it define things - and do EE more often, if necessary, to hook into that part of yourself that can and will help. We're all in this together.

 

[RyanX]

The other part of that is that, on so many occasions in my life, I have managed to hook up with these very people! The one's who just completely drain you of your life force and manipulate and create emotionally devastating situations, that I don't trust my judgment anymore. Its like there is a target painted on my forehead!!! While I have gained a great deal of awareness and knowledge, I cannot be sure that it is yet enough to overcome my "be nice" program. So... for now.... just staying pretty isolated.

FWIW, I can relate to this.

I've been pretty isolated now the last couple months. In some ways I kind of like it, in others I find it frustrating. Also, my old friends just don't seem as interesting anymore. Not only that, but they tend to drag me into bad habits which I'm not really interested in doing (going out to the pubs for instance).

But you know what is strange? I think my old friends have lost interest in me too. It's like they've sensed a change in me and we no longer "jive". I know Ouspensky discusses something of this sort in ISOTM, so it was kind of strange when it happened to me recently.

Relationships scare me. With all the people I've met, even the ones that I think would be decent people, usually turn out to be energy vampires in the worse possible ways. I've begun to question whether relationships are entirely a 4D STS game, since nobody seems to ever make any conscious decisions when it comes to relationships. It's like they turn two people on each other that couldn't be worse for each other from an energy standpoint - but this is never obvious from first impressions.

I think you're doing the right thing by taking a break and working on yourself. This has been essentially my response to the same realizations.

 

[Aaron r]

Thank-you Auranimal, your post has expressed much of what I have been feeling the past many months. My heart goes out to you. I second Anart's encouragements.

 

[Risen]

Thanks for posting this exerpt, findit........

I'm scared. So many psychopaths, characteropaths and Vampires in general out there. And I am not so sure that as a traumatized individual, that I am not one of them.

Feeling pretty sad and lost in this FUBAR world.


I make a point of teaching my team techniques for politely showing them (whenever possible) a healthy boundary.

Auranimal, I could have written your post and it would have been exactly what I am feeling. I am surrounded by these people and ,sadly, some of them are my own grown children. I am also very sad and lonely.
Would you be willing to elaborate on the techniques you mentioned? I would be grateful.