My Name Is Toxic Shame
I was there at your conception
In the epinephrine of your mother’s shame
You felt me in the fluid of her womb
I came upon you before you could speak
Before you understood
Before you had any way of knowing
I came upon you when you were learning to walk
When you vulnerable and needy
Before you had any boundaries
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
I came upon you when you were magical
Before you could know I was there
I severed your soul
I pierced you to the core
I brought you feelings of distrust, ugliness, stupidity, doubt
worthlessness, inferiority, and unworthiness
I made you feel different
I told you there was something wrong with you
I soiled you Godlikeness
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
I existed before conscience
Before guilt
Before morality
I am the master of emotion
I am the internal voice that whispers
words of condemnation
I am the eternal shudder that courses through you
without any mental preparation
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
I live in secrecy
In the deep moist banks of darkness
depression and despair
Always I sneak up on you, I catch you off guard
I come through the back door
Uninvited unwanted
The first to arrive
I was there at the beginning of time
With Father Adam, Mother Eve
Brother Cain
I was at the Tower of Babel
the Slaughter of the Innocents
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
I come from ‘shameless’ caretakers, abandonment,
ridicule, abuse, neglect—perfectionistic systems
I am empowered by the shocking intensity of a parent’s rage
The cruel remarks of siblings
The jeering humiliation of other children
The awkward reflection in mirrors
The touch that feels icky and frightening
The slap, the pinch, the jerk that ruptures trust
I am intensified by
A racist, sexist culture
The righteous condemnation of religious bigots
The fears and pressures of schooling
The hypocrisy of politicians
The multigenerational shame of dysfunctional family systems
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
I can transform a woman person, a Jewish person, a black person
a gay person, an oriental person, a precious child into
A bitch, a kike, a nigger, a bull dyke, a faggot, a chink,
a selfish, little bastard
I bring pain that is chronic
A pain that will not go away
I am the hunter that stalks you night and day
Every day everywhere
I have no boundaries
You try to hide from me
But you cannot
Because I live inside you
I make you feel hopeless
Like there is no way out
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
My pain is so unbearable that you must pass me on to others
Through control, perfectionism, contempt, criticism, blame,
envy, judgement, power, and rage.
My pain is so intense
You must cover me up with addictions, rigid roles, reenactment,
and unconscious ego defenses.
My pain is so intense
That you must numb out and no longer feel me.
I convinced you that I am gone—that I do not exist—you
experience absence and emptiness
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
I am the core of co-dependency
I am spiritual bankruptcy
The logic of absurdity
The repetition compulsion
I am crime, violence, incest, rape
I am the voracious hole that fuels all addictions
I am insatiability and lust
I am Ahasverus the Wandering Jew,
Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, Dostoevsky’s underground man,
Kierkegaard’s seducer, Goethe’s Faust
I twist who you are into what you do and have
I murder your soul and you pass me on for generations
My Name Is Toxic Shame.
-originally by Leo Booth, adapted by John Bradshaw-
scooped it to http://www.scoop.it/t/training-consult/curate?from=ds&source=curate&_tmc=YAtV4HVsR_5E2ywQ8Di2j-d–FbG2YBkfFj4HaB_qWE. Hoping that it scoops people back here 😉
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Thank you Mette…I deeply appreciate your support in creating an occasional space for this blog there. 🙂 Love and light…Cornflower delight. 😉
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Pretty much sums up the dark side of human existence.
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I completely agree…
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