Thursday, April 7, 2011

How to attract a Narcissistic, Borderline, Psychotic, or Chemically addicted/dependent partner

Whenever a person tells me, "The only men who ever ask me out are alcoholic/narcissistic", I always ask them to tell me what their methods of interpersonal communication are. I am constantly shocked that they are surprised. To attract an undesirable mate, follow these easy steps:
1. Send a man/woman you are interested in all the signals that you are interested (making frequent, prolonged eye contact, light touches, asking personal questions) but when he/she walks up to you to start a conversation or ask you out, send him/her signals you aren't interested (turn your body away, ignore him/her, say, "no thanks", or "I'm actually taking a break from dating right now")

 2. After doing the above, if you do give him/her your number (because secretly, honestly, you are interested) and they call,text you, don't respond at all, or if you do, wait more than 24 hrs, and then only give one word responses.

3. Don't do what you tell him/her you are going to do.

 If someone is STILL trying to pursue you at this point, congratulations, he/she is Narcissistic, Borderline, Psychotic, or Chemically addicted/dependent....because seriously?! No healthy, quality person would want you or put up with that shit! It drives me crazy when people say they are turned on by "a challenge" and those people who put up with that or act this way are more desirable.....what, like a relationship with this "challenge" is going to last? My sweet sister and her sweet husband divorced after 10 years, and they were easy sweet people. Relationships are hard enough...don't be dumb too.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Reactive Attachment Disorder: there is hope

I have worked with adolescents in several different residential settings with reactive attachment disorder: its marked by a relationship style with caregivers of "I'll reject you before you can reject me". It is formed in the child's early years in multiple different ways, one of which is having the child's caregiver meet the child's needs inconsistently. So a child on this path has learned that he cannot rely on his parent for anything, because if he does, he may get disappointed, so he stops seeking his caregiver for emotional nurturance. Anyway, a few months ago a 4 yr old boy came into the shelter where I work with beginning signs of this disorder: he never sought physical contact, even when he was in pain, or sad. When his mother came to visit him there was no outward sign that he knew who she was, was glad to see her, or sad to leave her when the visit ended. I have had a particularly difficult opening my heart to this little boy, as he rejected every effort on my part to form a bond, and he rarely did what is asked of him.
Well starting  about 10 days ago, he started randomly saying, "I wanna sit in your lap" and when he gets hurt or his feelings are sad he has started coming to me for comfort. Yesterday, for the first time, I asked him if he would come sit on my lap, and as he did, I rested my chin on his head and thought there was hope for him after all, and perhaps for me as well.