Dirty Laundry

[MTL]

When your family is the most important thing in the world to you, and they always have been;
and when your family always had all the machinery for happiness, but ended up unhappy anyway, and so needlessly,
and when you round that point where you realize they are lost and that all your efforts to save them were for nought,
and when you know they will realize their mistake too late, and then hate themselves,
and you tried but failed to warn them of the coming disaster,
it makes you feel like you'll never be happy again, at least not nearly as much...and it makes you feel like you cannot trust,
and you don't understand, because you tried to do everything they taught you, and sacrifice everything you had,
and they also feel like strangers to you...even though you grew up in the same house, with the same values.

I could accept that I will lose them someday, and even sooner than I might like...

...if only the time that we DID have together wasn't so needlessly destroyed, and was something happy to look back upon.  

You can't go back, only push ahead. Your situation is likely very different than mine. If you step away separate yourself from the situation for awhile, maybe you'll be able to see things more clearly. Maybe your family will come to understand how their actions are hurting you, in your absence. At the very least, they might tone it down, if they know you won't tolerate it.

absolutely.  I agree with everything everyone has said, and I guess I already knew it, but wanted to vent, and it's supportive to hear others validating your own common sense.  So thank you again!