Author: Ann Schiebert
What is a Reality Distortion System? It is a belief system that supports denial. One’s life is organized around the Reality Distortion Field (RDS) and this serves to cement perception distortion into one’s entire vision of what is true, and what is not true. When reality tries to loosen the anchor bolts that keep the RDS securely in place, the denial system gathers more evidence around it to further shore up its foundation.
An example of life in a Reality Distortion System is as follows:
| dad’s relatives – many addicts
alcoholic dad |
mom’s relatives – marry addicts
codependent mom |
3 children
Dad’s parents don’t think that dad has a drinking problem, because they drink. Dad’s drinking looks normal to them. Mom thinks dad has a drinking problem and tries to fix/change him because that’s what her mother did with her dad. This looks normal to her. The children think the chaos caused by being in an alcoholic family looks normal, and they will probably select mates who come from similar families with similar belief systems. All of these folks live in a Reality Distortion System. Their life decisions are made by relying on what they grew up with.
At the base of this family is denial: dad denies he has a drinking problem; mom is addicted to hope that dad will change if she just nags him enough – her denial is about her ability to make someone else change when they show no indication of wanting to do so; the children know the reality (that their dad has a drinking problem) but have been told so often not to trust it, that they force themselves to join the RDS so they can feel they fit in with their family – or they can find ways of numbing out to this reality discordance by being super achievers, problem children, or loners.
So now what? More on this in the next post.