What actually holds you up when resilience runs out?

In this episode of Human After All, Tanisha Christie, LCSW, talks through her mother's recent hospitalization and what it means to sit on the other end of a phone, two thousand miles away, while a complicated relationship meets an uncertain ending.

There's history here that doesn't resolve neatly. Distance she needed to survive. And grief but not the kind most people picture. Complicated grief happens when love and harm come from the same person, so the loss doesn't just bring sadness. It also brings relief, anger, guilt, and things that don't cancel each other out no matter how long you sit with them. Tanisha picked up the phone anyway. Her sister held it to their mother's ear. What she said into it, and whether her mother understood it, isn't something this episode resolves for you either.

This episode doesn't try to tie it together. It sits in the contradiction of caring for someone you don't particularly like, in the question of what you owe someone at the end of their life — someone who survived things of her own, who loved in the only way she knew how, even when that way caused harm — and in what's actually left standing once the conventional advice stops working.

Content note: This episode discusses family trauma, estrangement, dementia, hospitalization, narcissistic behavior, and end-of-life experiences.

Credits

Podcast: Human After All

Presented By: Liberation-Based Therapy

Host: Tanisha Christie, LCSW

Music Credit:

“Better Angels” written, performed and produced by Alexis Hightower

Liberation-Based Therapy Website: www.liberationbasedtherapy.com

Podcast Page: www.liberationbasedtherapy.com/human-after-all-pod

Make an Appointment https://www.liberationbasedtherapy.com/make-an-appointment

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