Ct father

[pleistarchos]

Hello, this is pretty much my first post. Im not sure if I am posting this in the right place so I apologize.

I have a problem with my father. He is very much in to Conspiracy Theories... Hes a huge fan of Alex Jones to add to it...(yeah....)

Hes always been kind of "weird", but over the last 12 months or so hes gotten way worse. About a year ago he randomly woke me up in the middle of the night telling me about FEMA camps...trains...and all that stuff. I never saw him act that way before so I kind of believe him.

Now that I had a chance to find this forum and see that theres really nothing to worry about I've kind of calmed down. I have been diagnosed with Acute Stress Disorder from what he did. I'm afraid to even look at a train sometimes. I have nightmares every time I go to sleep... I feel that I will never be normal again.

I dont believe it at all. It's just that I constantly dwell on the thought. I moved out for a year and moved in with my aunt. I recently came back after he promised me that he wasn't into those things anymore... Well of course when i come back, he is the same way. I don't know what I'm going to do. Its so depressing that he believes these things.. People tell me that i should move out, but I dont have the funds. Any thoughts on what to do to keep my sanity?

[LightinDarkness]

Wow. This is an excellent example of how CT thinking really can ruin lives and families. Waking up your child in the middle of the night and fear mongering them on FEMA camps? Inducing stress disorders by terrifying your children with CTs that have ABSOLUTELY NO BASIS IN FACTS? If the OP is accurate in his story this sounds like borderline child abuse.

OP, as you now know, FEMA camps - and every other CTs designed to terrify you by Alex Jones and company - are not based in reality. They exist as a way for conspiracy theorists to feel like there is some giant battle going on that they know about, its a form of fantasy escapism that CTers think is real because they want it to be real. They want FEMA camps to be real because they want to put on their rambo uniforms and fight the MAN, etc.

Unfortunately, simply using reason and facts does not always persuade CTers. Many of them Believe in CT because they desperately want to bring excitement to their lives, and when they WANT to believe its very hard to dissuade people form their myths. About the only time you can get to them is in cases where they fall for it because someone they hold in a position of trust believes, and they dont genuinely hope for doomsday scenarios.

Keep yourself grounded in reality. Read these forums and skeptical websites devoted to debunking CT hysteria. Sometimes its best to simply take a logical approach to the fear mongering CTS like FEMA camps - for example, CTers can never exactly tell us WHY the government wants to kill everyone. After all, if as the CT claims the NWO (another fictional group) loves controlling us all, why slaughter us en masse? The CT isn't even internally consistent with the rest of CT dogma, and most of them never are.

[pleistarchos]

Thank you very much for your reply. Back when he was talking about the FEMA camps... he always said "its all going to happen in around 3 months". Ten months have gone by since then, and now hes saying that the camps will be used for those who refuse to take the Flu vaccine. Hes trying to keep this whole theme going.

He always thinks that someone in authority is reptilian. He says that if he says too much the government will have him killed. All that good stuff... if theres a CT...he will believe. The more rational something is, the less likely he will believe it. The crazier it sounds, hes all for it.

[Horatius]

I've been listening to a lot of Skeptoid Podcasts this week, and he has one that might be of use to you:

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4116

Excerpt:

So there we have it. The problem: How to be a skeptic, and talk with your friends and coworkers when the subject comes up, without turning people off? Here is the solution.

Focus on where you agree, never on where you disagree. Start by finding common ground. No matter who you're talking to, they have some level of skepticism about something. Ask them, "Isn't there some myth you've heard that you don't necessarily believe?"

They'll answer "Well sure, Bigfoot, space aliens," whatever.

Tell them "I'm skeptical of Bigfoot for the exact same reasons you are. Tell me why you don't believe in Bigfoot?" And now you've got your friend telling you the very reasons you're skeptical of the new claim. The evidence is of poor quality, it's too improbable, whatever it is. Help your friend along. Point out more reasons to be skeptical of Bigfoot. Be familiar with our checklist of 15 warning signs to help you spot pseudoscience from Skeptoid episode 37.

And then, once you have a good list, apply that same reasoning to the new claim. "We agree that part of the reason Bigfoot is suspect is that we have low quality evidence coming from people with dubious credentials. We can also find those same problems with the claim that you can run your car on water. Also, we agree that one reason Bigfoot is improbable is that if it was real, we'd have known about it by now — people have been living in Bigfoot habitat for hundreds of years. We can say that same thing about running your car on water — science has known all about oxyhydrogen and electrolysis for hundreds of years and exploited it many different ways. It wouldn't have to wait for some guy on the Internet to claim to know something that science doesn't."

[GeoffreyRunsBrooklyn]

pleistarchos,

Since you've been diagnosed with Acute Stress Disorder (which, by the way, is a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is very serious), I'm assuming you've had contact with some sort of mental health professional ... I'm not an expert (though I am in therapy), but my advice would be, if you have the resources or health care coverage, to see, or continue to see, a mental health professional to develop strategies for dealing with your diagnosis. Like I said, PTSD/ASD is serious business & ought not be ignored.

There is an aspect of conspiratorial thinking which is linked to paranoia, metanoia & other psychological neuroses, & our interactions with our parents often leave lasting scars that take years to unpack & deal with ... So, yeah, you may find it useful to find someone to talk with about these issues.

Other than that, I'd say try to surround yourself with critical thinkers & people who are rational & caring, & don't promote fear & paranoia.

Good luck & take care.

[pleistarchos]

pleistarchos,

Since you've been diagnosed with Acute Stress Disorder (which, by the way, is a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is very serious), I'm assuming you've had contact with some sort of mental health professional ... I'm not an expert (though I am in therapy), but my advice would be, if you have the resources or health care coverage, to see, or continue to see, a mental health professional to develop strategies for dealing with your diagnosis. Like I said, PTSD/ASD is serious business & ought not be ignored.


I wish I could, I need a job first. I have no money of my own at all.

[911kongen]

Move out! This can get dangerouse!

[Sabrina]

Can you move back with your aunt?

Oh, and welcome by the way.

Another option; try to ignore his ranting. You've seen the facts now; you know what's true and what's not, so being anxious over something you know is extremely unlikely to ever happen is a waste of your mental reasoning, IMHO. My advice; if you can't move back with your aunt, listen to your dad, nod your head sympathetically, and above all, DON'T LET IT GET YOU NERVOUS. It's pretty clear from your OP that he is unlikely to listen to reason, so there's no point in showing him the facts; therefore, the next best thing to do is just let it wash over you and roll off like water off a duck's back. Don't let him stress you out. By the way, I'm positive there are free clinics available that, while they may not have fully credentialed psychologists, may at least have counselors that you can speak with. Try checking out the free clinics in your area and see if there's any help available for you.

[deep]

Any thoughts on what to do to keep my sanity?


I would send him a fake letter from some anonymous "agent" telling him not to discuss any more clandestine/covert activities with his immediate family -- but that's just me.

[pleistarchos]

Can you move back with your aunt?

Oh, and welcome by the way.

Another option; try to ignore his ranting. You've seen the facts now; you know what's true and what's not, so being anxious over something you know is extremely unlikely to ever happen is a waste of your mental reasoning, IMHO. My advice; if you can't move back with your aunt, listen to your dad, nod your head sympathetically, and above all, DON'T LET IT GET YOU NERVOUS. It's pretty clear from your OP that he is unlikely to listen to reason, so there's no point in showing him the facts; therefore, the next best thing to do is just let it wash over you and roll off like water off a duck's back. Don't let him stress you out. By the way, I'm positive there are free clinics available that, while they may not have fully credentialed psychologists, may at least have counselors that you can speak with. Try checking out the free clinics in your area and see if there's any help available for you.

Well I cant afford to fly 1.5k miles back to AZ. But i will try your advice. thank you very much. its very helpful

[TheDaver]

Well, for now, concentrate on the positive. Getting a job will allow you to move out again, so let that serve as motivation to get a job. If it’s not too far beneath you, you can try working for a big national/international company like Wal-Mart, which will give you the possibility of transferring to another one of their locations when you want to move out-of-state.

[Aardvark422]

pleistarchos, I think you have found the right place here. I came across the JREF mostly because of the rantings of my CTist father. If there is a conspiracy out there, my dad believes it. New Year's Eve, 1999, he was holed up in some hills in southern California, convinced that planes were going to fall from the sky, computers would crash, cars would run off the road, etc. He believes in the mind controlling powers of HAARP, chemtrails, FEMA death camps, the New World Order, the Amero (it's true! There are pictures of them and everything!). He is also a very outspoken Revelationist. He believes that the second coming of christ/end of the world is at hand and has several times over the past few years warned family members to flee their homes because the Apocalypse was about to begin.

I tell you all that to tell you this - Ignore it!! While I never fully believed anything my dad said, just hearing him would get me worried. It is almost impossible not to. But you have to let it roll off you, that is the only way to retain your sanity. To do anything else is to get sucked into their world. And their world is dark, evil, hopeless! Until you can get away from it, please do your best to not listen to it.

I wish you the best of luck, and if you want to swap crazy stories fathers believe, I bet I could go toe to toe for quite awhile.

[Hypatia]

Welcome, pleistarchos. You've come to a good place. I'm sorry to hear about your father. Sounds like your father fell down the CT rabbit hole around the same time as my husband, roughly a year ago. Since then, my husband has gotten out of the rabbit hole. Thank goodness. We're still dealing with the fallout, but I believe, with time, we'll be okay.

Here's what I did to keep my head together while my husband lived in such a negative, delusional place: I focused on my work, my activities and interests, and I ignored his rantings as much as I possibly could (except to debunk the CTists when I caught them in lies -- I believe that, ultimately, this helped my husband out of the rabbit hole, because he hates to be lied to, and his growing awareness of the larger pattern of CT lying and fearmongering was his first AHA moment that started him on the path back out of the rabbit hole).

My husband and I had already been together for quite some time when he fell down the CT rabbit hole, so by October of last year, when things got so bad between us, I decided I've give it a year, and if things weren't better by the next year (this coming October), I would get out of the marriage. I didn't want to just bolt, since we'd loved each other so much and for so long. Turns out, here's the next October on the horizon, and things are much better between my husband and me. But there's no doubt: if he'd still been down the demon-haunted rabbit hole, I would've had to leave the marriage.

Focus on what you can do jobwise, with your interests, your abilities, and keep your focus away from your father as much as possible. Maintain a place of sanity, of rationality, in your own mind, and don't let him penetrate it. And it would be a good idea to set yourself a goal to work toward -- ultimately, developing the wherewithal to move back out of his home for good. That goal will help focus your efforts in a positive way, getting space from him and working toward a goal that's good for you.

Take care, and I wish you the best of luck. PM me if you want to talk.

[Caustic Logic]

Move out! This can get dangerouse!

Lol. Look out for fear mongers! They want to kill you!

Seriously though, some good advice above. If he's reachable by reason then work on that, and if not, then try to move out however you can until you get on your feet, as it can get annoying/unhealthy/dangerous. Ultimately it's your situation and we don't know the best details... we can't tell you, for example, which cousin of yours has a place near you with an empty room. For reasoning, well we also can't tell you just will or won't work with your dad and his particular issues. Maybe with more details, like what was it that convinced him of any one "fact"" Who does he trust and why? Does he realize he's a fallible human being that's quite capable of being wrong even when he can "just feel it?" Why does he believe people mostly when they're trying to scare him? Is he already scared deep down, or so sedate he's driven to the drama? You might need to get him to talk deeply about it to really untangle them knots. It may never happen. Therefore, catalog some couches... and good luck.

[pleistarchos]

I tell you all that to tell you this - Ignore it!! While I never fully believed anything my dad said, just hearing him would get me worried. It is almost impossible not to. But you have to let it roll off you, that is the only way to retain your sanity. To do anything else is to get sucked into their world. And their world is dark, evil, hopeless! Until you can get away from it, please do your best to not listen to it.


Yeah, Im the same way. I never believed it, just the thought of those horrible things happening, i felt like i was in a bad movie.

[Sabrina]

I would also say that you are welcome at any time to discuss your concerns and fears with us here on the forum. As you've seen, we have several members who have family members lost to the CT world, plus we have access to a lot of resources to get you the facts that may relieve your mind of the worry regarding something being true or not. So if your dad starts spouting off, and despite your best intentions you can't help but wonder if there's any truth to whatever theory it is, posit it here and we'll help you find the truth of the matter. That is a large part of why most of us are here, after all, so we're pleased to help out in any way we can, even if it's just by lending a sympathetic ear. So to speak, anyway. :)