Withstanding a smear campaign

[Guest guest]

I've been NC more than two months now. It's been great - the grief

feelings came and went, and I've had the gift of beginning to

experience myself apart from the mental illness of my FOO. I've

given them little thought, since there's much else going on in my

life right now. It is hugely freeing to know I can just do this.

It's now become clear that, predictably, nada has freaked out - her

pathology is running real high, and she's launched a new level of

smear campaign against me (and possibly a couple of other family

members). Apparently, the level of factual lies, let alone

emotional distortion, is pretty 'out there.'

In general, it doesn't affect me directly, since we live in separate

cities and I don't have contact with the people she's 'enlisting.'

And I simply don't have the time or energy to think much about her.

Still, it's pulling up the fleas of having the truth, or my truth,

completely obliterated by lies that are truly mind-boggling. On one

hand, it helps me in that it makes the mental illness so

dramatically clear that there's no question it has nothing to do

with me. On the other hand, it pulls up my feelings of

hopelessness, voicelessness, and powerlessness to stave off the

cancer of hatred that seems to be eating her up.

Anyway - thanks for letting me share this. You've all had helpful

suggestions along these lines with others, but just wanted to hear

any ideas on how to deal with the fleas.