DARK SHEEP HARD HOW TO

The people who should want to understand your perspective, don’t. The people you expect to know you, don’t. The experience of being a black sheep in the family is very real and can be incredibly traumatic. How does being the black sheep impact mental health? Some families will reject any loved one who deviates from the family’s norms.

DARK SHEEP HARD HOW TO

These families may not know how to include the black sheep, or they may not want to. The family might also simply lack the skills and experience to understand someone who differs. When families single out a black sheep – or a few of them – it shows that the family isn’t interested in understanding what’s different. Black sheep often have different values or characteristics from their relatives, which induces the family to treat them unkindly, exclude them, or just make them feel like they don’t belong. Marginalized family members are often misunderstood by the rest of the family due to different beliefs, interests, personality traits, or life experiences.

Why do so many families have black sheep? They seek out other relationships that feel fulfilling and safe, to supplement family relationships. On the other hand, some black sheep still feel like part of the family, but need to develop other support systems, too. Some choose voluntarily to get some distance, due to the lack of understanding from others in the group. You might also choose to go “ no-contact” due to mistreatment. On the other hand, black sheep aren’t always explicitly excluded. Oftentimes, the holiday season highlights which members of a family “don’t belong.” Who wasn’t invited? Who was invited, but gets either ignored or singled out for their differences? The life of a family’s black sheep almost always contains loneliness. Black sheep, also known as marginalized family members, often feel hurt, inadequate, and lonely.īlack sheep, also known as marginalized family members, are mostly characterized by the fact that they don’t “fit in,” leading to feelings of hurt and inadequacy, or isolation and frustration. What does it mean to be the “black sheep” of the family?Ī “black sheep” is a family member who is marginalized, treated differently, or excluded by the rest of the family. This article illustrates what it means to be the black sheep of the family and offers strategies to cope with the distress it can cause. Folks who identify as “the black sheep of the family” understand this experience. When we feel left out or rejected like this, many of us turn to the understanding of our families for comfort.įor that reason, it can be extremely difficult when the people making us feel excluded or “othered” are our own family members. We’ve all been in situations where we feel a bit out of place–we might feel misunderstood, or maybe even unwanted.

Dark sheep hard