relapse

My mom has started seriously dating a cousin of my Dad's who is an alcoholic, a gambling addict, and a drug addict; he has no job and lives in a trailer in Wayne County. Oh, and he has an estranged daughter my age.

And Mom refuses to admit that ANY of the above is a problem because he tells her that he's "born again."

So far, two holidays have been ruined by confrontations: the day before Thanksgiving AND Christmas Eve we had intense hours-long discussions about it. Each time, I pleaded with her to back away, using every rhetorical flourish I could to convince her what a totally fucking BAD idea this is. And each time, she accused me of doubting the power of Jesus Christ to "heal" people.

How can I argue with Jesus?

Quite honestly, I'm angry and scared. And I'm not allowing this relationship to happen without fighting it. My next step? Driving to Rochester and staging a family intervention. After that? Confronting Vince. And then? Well, I don't know. I refuse to threaten to cut my mom off: that's a tactic she's all too familiar with. However, I don't know how else to get my message across: reason hasn't been working so well; neither has heartfelt emotion.

And so, one of the only people I have left in the world is going to deliberately betray me--and herself. She's essentially choosing this ASSHOLE over her only daughter.

This is why my depression has relapsed, just in time for the gloomiest months of the year and the beginning of the spring semester.

And I feel completely powerless to fight it.