To ‘X’,
Happy Christmas and New Year. It would have been nice to be able to see you before Christmas, to wish you that. It would have been nice to have just one Christmas and New Year, that I could enjoy and not feel was going to be my last. It would’ve been nice to go into a new year without taking you into it.
I’d hoped we could have had the meeting my CCO requested. I don’t yet understand the reasons you said no. I hope to discover that when I meet with your colleagues in the new year. I still probably won’t understand. Having no reason given, has left me considering ALL possibilities. I have an answer to each one. If it’s because you hate me – I hate myself. If it’s because you liked me too… get over it. I’ve had to. If it’s because of your own anxieties / reservations / fears – we need to discuss them so I can reassure you and find ways to accommodate your own needs whilst you consider mine. If it’s because of your health or personal life, then okay, but if you’re working there and doing the job you did before, then you’re capable of sitting in on this meeting. If it’s because you just don’t want to… that’s just not good enough.
I need to be free. I need peace. I need closure. I never wanted to say goodbye to you. That was the problem. I feared the loss of you. That’s all it ever was. Last year I made the choice to not come back to the centre. I took on that loss that I didn’t want. So, I’ve already got what I didn’t want. Please let me get a little bit of what I DO want…. a positive ending with you. A goodbye from you. That’s not too much to ask. If you think it is, then you must realise we are only at this point because you said no when I compromised massively. When I asked for 5% of what I needed. You said no then. It has escalated to this point because of that.
I don’t mean to disrespect your personal boundaries. You have a right to say no without an explanation. But you need to realise my stance too. I’m not being manipulative. I’m not being awkward. I’m not being stubborn. I’m not being dramatic. I’m not CHOOSING this. I’m neurodivergent. I see only two options that I can stomach. One is dependent on you saying yes to this meeting and giving me a positive ending. The other is for me to not exist anymore. I don’t want that to be the outcome. I wish there was a third option. To neurotypicals there would be multiple options… compromises. But I compromised enough already and was met with unreasonable responses. It’s time you all compromise with me. We’re at that stage now – you never have to see me again after this. That breaks me, but for you it will be a relief.
You’ve had three years away from me almost. Away from this issue, apart from when it’s popped up to annoy you. You’ve had peace in regard to this. Every single waking moment of my life in the last three years has been about this. The pain of this – of losing you… that was hard enough without thinking you hate me. The fact you keep saying no, when my only other option genuinely is suicide, tells me you hate me that much that you want me to be dead.
When I’ve only ever cared about you and wished the best for you, I just find that incredibly upsetting. I just wanted you to hear me out. To come along and hear what I have to say. The frustrating thing is that if you heard what I had to say, you’d agree to the meeting, but until you hear what I have to say you don’t want to attend it. There’s really no way around this though, other than agreeing to the meeting. I can’t give you what I was going to read out to you, because WRITING is the problem – it’s led to so many misunderstandings from all of you. I have to say it to your face, for you to understand me and not misinterpret my intentions. I cannot do that until you meet with me. And you won’t do that because you are obviously misunderstanding me.
Maybe you’re holding onto things I said or did in the past. That’s unfair. I was having a breakdown the last time I sent an email your way. I believed I would be gone from this world within weeks. I’m ashamed of the past. I’m not in the past. I’ve had therapy since. I’ve been with CMHT for about 18 months. They helped patch me up and get me back on my feet. Unfortunately waiting four months for a reply from the centre, and then hearing it’s a no from you, has knocked me back pretty much to the start. So unfortunately, what I wanted to share with you is now no longer the case. But if you had met with me / us, you would have discovered that I was doing better. You can’t hold me to the past. That’s not right.
The meeting was not about attacking you, as a person or as a service. Yes, I may have mentioned the complaint situation, purely from a point of explaining my triggers of being misunderstood / rejected / unheard etc… things that you have now also triggered. But what I had to say was not about you, it was about me. It was to explain… to feel heard and understood as a person. It was to tell you the positive (but appropriate) things I felt towards you. It was to wish you well. It was to tell you the impact a positive ending would have on me, and why I needed that. To show you what I’ve learnt in therapy, to explain what happened. It was in the hope you could say kind words to me, like my therapist and now my CCO did when I lost them. To give me the sort of ending I need and have never had with people that mattered to me… people who I may have had some form of ‘conflict’ with. I needed that repair. That healing. And being wished well regardless. I needed to hear goodbye. So that I can start to grieve you. Positively. If you refuse this, you’re no better than anyone who I knew personally from my past, who hurt me and then ghosted me. That leaves me with the only option of hating you. Putting you in the ‘dead to me’ pile. Believe me, I don’t want to do that.
This isn’t like a personal situation. It shouldn’t feel like one. You’re effectively a ‘professional’. This should feel like a professional situation. You would’ve had support. I would’ve had support – something I didn’t have in the past when you used to have a chaperone. I didn’t have somebody in MY corner, regardless of what you as a service said. You were not on my side. I know that, now I’ve experienced having somebody on my side. I have a right to be heard. I would like that to be in that meeting. It’s better than posting it online. What you’re doing at the moment is damaging me further. If I could’ve explained to you my CAT map, you’d understand this. I can’t do that unless I see you.
The meeting was going to be positive. It had to be. Originally it may have allowed me to use the service in the future if I needed to. But the experiences I’ve had with you all, have scarred me badly. I can’t see that I could ever trust you as a service ever again. So it’s unlikely I would come back. Choosing to leave and never see you again, was the hardest decision I ever made in my life. I didn’t have a choice. I had just nearly ended my life a couple of weeks earlier. You will never fully understand what the last two / three years have done to me. That’s a burden only I will carry and know throughout my life.
That life won’t be very long though at this rate. I honestly cannot live with things in the state they still are in. I never could. I have to be able to live with the outcome of this. There is only ONE outcome now that I can live with, given that I’ve already lost you. I wish I was being manipulative or dramatic. That would mean I had other options that I could live with. But I don’t. Those who suggest alternatives don’t have to live with this inside them, forever. And I honestly cannot live with the outcome we currently have. So I need it to change.
What I had to say was for the benefit of everyone. It would have made everyone feel better. That’s what annoys me. It wasn’t a whinge-fest. It wasn’t negative. It wasn’t a threat to anyone. But you won’t hear me out. So it makes me more negative sounding. It’s annoying. Because you’ve turned it from a positive, healing thing, to that desperate, suicidal thing again. But that’s not who I am and it’s not the purpose of the meeting. That’s just the result of me being unheard, overlooked, misunderstood and rejected, when my intentions were pure and positive. It’s so frustrating.
Why can’t you just meet with us and let me say goodbye to you? Why can’t you allow me to let you go? Don’t you want me to let you go? Don’t you want this to finally be over? I can only assume not. I can only assume you want me to suffer or to die, or you don’t want to let ME go. That seems unlikely and makes no sense to me, but I have to consider it as an option given the lack of information we’ve had. Please reconsider. Please. It’s my life on the line here.
I have to hide all of this over Christmas. I’ve hidden it all year. I’ve hidden that we’ve tried to get this meeting. I’ve hidden how long it took to get a response. I’ve hidden the response. I’ve hidden that I’ve set a new date for me to leave this world as a result of that response. I’ve had to pretend to be better than I am. It’s such a burden, and to have to carry this over this time of year… AGAIN… it sickens me. Why can’t you free me and let me go? Why can’t you just level with me here? This will be the most important thing you’ll ever do in your career…. saving a life. Why is it such a big deal to see me and wish me well and say goodbye? I know it’s asking a lot to request that you say nice things to me. I always used to have to drag kind sentiments out of friends in the past. So I know that I’m not somebody that people actually care about / miss / value. If people felt it, they wouldn’t need me to ask them to say it. So I know I’m not a likeable person. But this isn’t personal. This is professional. You could’ve pretended to give a damn. You could’ve pretended that I matter as a person and that you wish me well. But you don’t want to do that. Just like my friends in the past didn’t want to do that. You have no idea how worthless this has made me feel.
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with the people you do care about… those who are allowed to care about you. You have no clue what it’s like to be rejected for caring about somebody you can never have in your life….and for fearing losing them. To need a goodbye and be denied it.
But you have a good Christmas, I’ll have my last. And I hope 2023 is a good year for you and the ones you love. I only ever thought the best of you. I’m sorry you didn’t want that.
xxxx
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