Roots of Jealousy and Mistrust

I’m 63 year old male. I was abused physically and emotionally from a very young age by my father. He often whipped me with a thin pigskin belt as hard as he could while he screamed at me. When I cried he would whip me until I stopped crying. I remember the feeling of imploding when I had to do this. My mother tried to make him stop but he would lock us in the bathroom while the beating took place.

I can still hear my mother screaming from the other side of the door for him to stop. When he didn’t whip me he called me names and told me I would never amount to anything. If I cried when he taunted me he would say they were “crocodile tears and didn’t mean anything”. My father died when I was 11 and as much as anything I felt relief.

My father loved my mother very much but she married him to get out of war torn Italy. She told me years latter “ she respected” him but didn’t mary him out of love. I was the only son and my mother loved me very much.

I have always struggled with relationships with women because of jealousy. I am hypersensitive to cues I think I’m getting from a women. If she doesn’t smile at me at the right time I take it as a rejection. It’s the intensity of the feelings I continue to have today that has made me wonder if my early experiences of my attachment to my mother and my hatred for my father influence my jealousy and lack of trust for women and at the same time my need for intense attachment to women. If so, is there help?

A: I admire your thoughtful reflection on the relationship with your mother and how it may be affecting you. Yes, I think those early attachment experiences with your mom have affected your relationships and there is there is help available for untangling this.

Your mother was a lifeline — an oasis of emotional and psychological respite. It sounds like you stayed very connected to her as a way of both feeling her love and of dealing with your father’s brutality. Without her attention your young life was bleak.

The Find Help tab at the top of the page can help you find a therapist in your area that can help. I’d connect with them as soon as you can so your long overdue healing can happen.

Wishing you patience and peace,
Dr. Dan
Proof Positive Blog @ PsychCentral

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