How To Find A Mother Figure When Your Mom Has a Mental Illness

You're reading How To Find A Mother Figure When Your Mom Has a Mental Illness, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles. My name is Ally Golden and I wrote my memoir, A Good Soldier, about my relationship with my mother, who suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder. Because of her disease, my mother and I never had a normal relationship. The love she gave was never without strings attached. Her affections depended on the amount of attention I paid to her and her mood on the given day. Our relationship was not all bad, I know what characterizes a good mom from her good moments: comforting me through the injustices of middle school friendships and advocating on my behalf to choral instructors. However, the intermittent tastes of good parenting only left me wanting more. For most of my life, I have tried to find a mother figure to fill in the gaps, and the following is what I learned. Be forewarned! If you are looking for someone to completely fill the void of an absent mother in your life, you need to adjust your expectations. No one will be able wholly adopt you into their family nor provide you the unconditional love that you crave. This is not because these potential mother figures don’t want to be there for you. There are just natural limits to how motherly this mentor can be to you: the number of hours in a day, finite emotional energy, lack of childhood bon...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: blogging featured happiness health and fitness motivation psychology relationships self improvement best self-improvement blogs better mental health better yourself mental illness mom mother figure pickthebrain self growth Source Type: blogs