Good morning all! My father (abusive, toxic all my life) (sometimes nice) blames me for causing his Parkinson’s.
I’m a good son. I’ve worked hard all my life. Successful. I’m an only-child. Divorced parents. I help him any way I can (he asks me for my help).
My father picks on me (my whole life; also before Parkinson’s started).
My father is now 80.
Parkinson’s started at 60.
He’s been tested many times for dementia (recently last week). Sound mind.
From the beginning (age 60), he said I caused it. He told me Parkinson’s can be caused by stress/psychological factors. He repeatedly, over many years, told me I caused it. (And that I’m causing it to get worse).
The problem is, that I believed him.
I know he’s abusive. But I guess a part of you tends to believe what your parents say.
(I have done nothing stressful towards my father). But still, I believed it.
I researched causes of Parkinson’s and tried to stop believing my father. I know it’s false. But it’s still in my mind.
Anyone else been falsely blamed for their LO’s illness, by their LO? How do you stop believing the accusation? Thanks in advance!
Update on my progress:
Really, it's the 1st time I see what's happening:
-control tactic
-projection
Until now (of course I know many of the things I hear are untrue), the pattern was kind of like this:
-My father says some negative thing X (which sometimes sounds valid) (let's say X doesn't concern me, it's just a complaint about something unrelated to me)
-I used to try to deal with X then; fix; think of solutions
(Over and over, same pattern)
Today I saw:
...that the complaint/negative things...have really (there are a few exceptions) NOTHING to do with a REAL thing...
...I mean it is REAL. But it' just an opportunity to say something NEGATIVE.
For the 1st time today, I didn't deal with X:
I just told myself (control tactic, projection), just wants to talk about negative things. Ignore.
I kindly said, "I love you", and that I had to go (which is true).
Thanks! I'm making progress.
He is lucky to have you.
Two things to remember about old age and chronic illness.
Sometimes, there is no "fix".
And sometimes, there is no "best solution". There is only the least bad one.
It sounds like your dad is venting. Responding with "I love you" is an awesome and sweet reply to his negativity.
I just saw an excellent post by Janine5432, where she talks about that.
Old is old. You can't fix old.
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/im-constantly-nervous-worried-how-does-everyone-else-manage-473796.htm
"It sounds like your dad is venting."
YES. And only against me.
I'll protect myself.
"Responding with "I love you" is an awesome and sweet reply to his negativity."
I do it all the time: various nice sentences. I always speak nicely.
But for the 1st time today, I see what he's doing.
So it affected me much less.
Thanks!!
Please change your name from Blamed (that’s what your father wants) to something else.
:)
How about Treasured? Appreciated? Cherished?
Hello Appreciated,
It’s a lie that you in any way caused the Parkinson’s or made the disease worse.
You don’t have the power to do that.
Did you inject your father with Parkinson’s disease?
Did you manipulate his cells, one by one, so that Parkinson’s will progress?
If anything, with your help, I bet you made the situation of having Parkinson’s a million times better for him.
Hello Appreciated,
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.
And actually very mean of your father to blame you, and he probably noticed you believed him, after repeatedly telling you that you’re the cause. Kind of like mentally torturing someone.
Poodle Doodle
Really.
I said it to my father many times, over the years:
"no I didn't cause your Parkinson's"
He screams then that I did.
Thanks to many replies here, I now see clearly what he's doing:
-venting
-projection
-control tactic
Is your Dad living independently or in Assisted Living? If he is living independently, do the research now, to start getting your Dad into Assisted Living/Memory Care. Also, if he doesn't have caregivers, start the process of finding an agency. Also, give up thinking that you will inherit anything from him other than a potential bad attitude. Also give up thinking about any relatives "helping" you.
In my case, I tend to only remember the good in people and downplay the bad (that is a side effect of the abuse that my mother inflicted upon me). Therefore, to make sure that I made the right decisions, I journaled what my Mom said and how I felt. Also in that journal, I documented what ideas I had for an action plan on how to get out of the abusive situation that didn't involve relatives. I went to Senior fairs to see what options were available and to generate new ideas. Yes, it was a lot of work, however, I knew that if I didn't thoroughly research, I could end up regretting my actions and second guessing the consequences.
Then one day, I had enough of the abuse and I put a plan into action. Within a month, I had moved Mom into Memory Care. It has been 2 months and so far, I have no regrets. She cries and whines about how bad the food is, how they ignore her, how mean they are to her, how I don't visit enough, and she doesn't want to stay. However, I walk away without much guilt because I know I could no longer do day-to-day care of her. I review my journal entries to reflect on how life was when I was in her clutches and write new journal entries.
I don't know if I'm a better person. I do know that visitation is optional. Therefore, when I go to see her, I start with a good attitude. I know I can leave at any time and know that someone is there to take care of her. When she starts accusing me or exhibits any of the nasty behavior, I honor my boundaries and tell her that my visit is ending. That is how I'm dealing with all the accusations, her bullying behavior and overly critical nature. I know that her accusations will not stop as they haven't for over 60 years of my life. Therefore, all I can do is remove myself from the toxic environment.
Good luck to you.
“I'm sorry that you are having to deal with the accusations. You need to take care of YOU!”
Yes.
I hope your day's going great!
You suggested to me:
"stop all contact with him."
I'll continue contact. I will help my father. I love him very deeply.
Again, thanks for your warning:
"If you can't separate yourself from his abuse then you need to go no contact. He will destroy you long before he is 6 feet under."
I promise, I won't let anyone destroy me.
try this, in your mind:
:) “Sorry. Yesterday was the deadline for complaints.”
this way, you simply don't accept complaints anymore (your father will continue, but you mentally block it; the deadline passed already, yesterday).
When I was a child my father had a stroke. My mother blamed me and, from that day on, if I disagreed with my parents or did anything “bad”, she insisted I would kill him with stress. At 18 I moved away. He died a few years later anyway.
l learned, after he died, that he’d had very high blood pressure for years before I was even born. Incidentally, he never alluded to any link between me and his health.
Now my mother has dementia. For years she blamed me. Her wildest accusation involved raging at me, demanding to know who was paying me to make her think she was losing her mind. Because she wasn’t. Her memory was fine. It was obviously my doing.
I remained calm, spoke softly, and acknowledged her anger, frustration and fear of losing control of her life. When I really wanted to yell back “Think you can match what they offered me to kill you?!?”
AWFUL, AWFUL.
And in some ways, similar to me.
I hope you didn't believe it at all (as you know, I believed it a bit --- that according to my father, stress caused his Parkinson's --- and that according to him, I had caused him stress --- but actually I was a super, sweet kid. And a kind adult).
Thanks for your message. Really.
Leading to this, she'd stopped eating food but drank more until she finally was bedridden, dehydrated, almost delirious, and having abdominal pain. My sister and I took her to the hospital under protest.
For 6 weeks post-op, she refused to even try to recover and starved herself down to 88 lbs.
She now says, "I'd be fine if I'd never gone to the hospital. They did this to me." (She's also got advancing dementia.)
By "they," she means me and my sister. We know she'd be dead now if we hadn't stepped in.
We've had a lifetime of similar verbal abuse. We're in our 60s now and limit visits. We walk away if she starts replaying old tapes. At some point you have to say, "Enough's enough. I don't deserve this BS."
My father says slightly different sentences - but it’s similar to your situation.
“We've had a lifetime of similar verbal abuse. We're in our 60s now and limit visits. We walk away if she starts replaying old tapes. At some point you have to say, "Enough's enough. I don't deserve this BS."”
YES.
By the way, just as my father is very likely jealous of me, your mother is very likely jealous of you and your sister.
Stress….? That can’t explain a lifetime of abuse.
Some people (family, “friends”, whoever) inject a mean sentence here and there, once every few years.
But when it’s a whole lifetime, and frequent?
That’s not stress. And that’s not “a bad day”. That’s choosing to aim all your abuse on a particular person.
And I do think that often, it originates from jealousy.
THANK YOU for your message.
Haha :).
Sweet.
Yes, ok!
From now on, I’ll be called “Accused”.
(Just kidding).
“He has latched on to that confabulation because it strikes a nerve in you.”
YOU ARE RIGHT.
I hadn’t thought of that before - and actually now that you say that, there are many things he says, which he knows “strike a nerve”.
“Do not tolerate the conversation.”
Yes.
AND THANK YOU for your message!