So long story short almost everyone in my immediate family is manipulative. My mom blames all her problems on her past with abusive men and when she got raped once as a teenager, which was a long time ago. My dad has anger issues and will take his mother’s side more often than anyone else’s, and with my grandparents, my maternal grandma loves to play the victim card, my maternal grandad is a curmudgeon that can’t accept anyone else being happy around him and is never satisfied with anything even he does, and my paternal grandma also has a small mix of each of those. My paternal grandpa is dead.

Basically I have a lot of that and I try not to, or I feel like I have a lot of it anyway. I am going to therapy but at this point I’m left to wonder, am I also manipulative since I notice some of their issues in me, or am I just picking it up from them?

In any rate though I do intend to really see for myself and get a place away from them, cut ties, and just think about it long and hard in my free time. Outside of that though what are some things I can do to help stop that or limit it? It’s gotten to the point that I’ve ended almost any and all friendships I had and even stopped trying to date for a few years because I don’t want to be seen as manipulative or anything like that, but at the same time if I’m trying to cut ties with my family alongside that then I’m left alone and I don’t want to be alone.