Normal at Christmas

Christmas is not about presents and "have to", it's about spending 'real' time with family and friends who accept, love, support and respect us. 
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 Can't you just be 'normal' for just one day?

Now the answer is . . . “Yes.”

“That’s just the way it is.  We are different.’

Trauma survivors pay a price for what they have suffered. This price is not

rescinded just because it is a holiday.

Now the answer is... "No."

The answer is “I went through hell, and holidays bring up a lot of pain. No. I cannot

be normal, as you call it. I am normal for what I have been through.”

Part of the pain induced by the request to be normal is the unspoken assumption

that you could be normal for a day if you just tried hard enough. Suzette Hadin Elgin in her book, The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense (Dorsett, 1980)

h/t Patience H. C. Mason, www.patiencepress.com
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