I don't know how best to help and I'd really appreciate your thoughts and advice.
Background:My daughter in her early 40s is seeking diagnosis of ADHD and though I'm not sure this will go anywhere she certainly has some autistic and/or ADD traits. Mainly a lack of empathy and understanding of others. (Though she has loads of sympathy, works in a supportvive role in mental health and enjoys helping people!) She procrastinates all the time and finds making decisions really difficult. She messages me and her friends asking for our opinion on things she is planning to do all the time for example because she can't make up her mind. And in relationships with boyfriends she is demanding of their time and attention, can't understand that she is being too clingy or obsessive and doesn't understand what's happened when they break up with her.
Current situation that worries me: She is in a long distance relationship with a man she met overseas and spent a few weeks with about two years ago. He can't travel to the UK (visa issues) so she goes to see him maybe once a year or so. She is very demanding and he is verbally abusive to her. He has tried to end the relationship but she can't let it go. She has tried to end the relationship because she knows she is being hurt and her friends and I tell her she's too good to be abused like this, but then gets back in touch with him after a day or two.
She cries heartbreakingly to me and her closest friends about the crude and hurtful things he says to her but she can't stop herself from continuing the relationship. She is just about to fly off to see him . She hasn't told me, I found out through her friend, which tells me she knows that she 'shouldnt' be going and I'll be upset that she still can't drop this man and his abuse.
I want to help her have the strength and self-worth to get out of this relationship but I really don't know how to approach this. She can be very 'sharp' with me (a bit of narcissism going on too I think) but I'm trying hard to be a supportive mum and not to walk away from the upset and hurt she causes but to try to talk about it (if I dare face her barbs).
Do I leave her to it? Tell her I don't want to know? Turn her away when she cries? Or something else that will help her move forward?
I'd really appreciate any suggestions, hopefully from other people in a similar situation or from friends of people who have been there, but really from anyone, to help me get a perspective on how best to help my daughter. Thanks in advance.
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