I left my family for the most part more than 10 years ago, even though I still live in the same city, and all but one of my relatives lives within 15 miles of me. I'm the "cut your losses and walk away" kind, usually. The exception in my family of origin is my sister, who has her own issues including repeatedly returning to an abusive relationship. I refuse to be around her partner, and a couple of times my sister lied to me about whether her partner would be present at a social engagement, so I don't go to her social engagements any longer. But I talk to her on the phone, and rarely we have lunch or something.

I just...did it alone, a lot of the time. I don't recommend it; I've been very lonely, and often needed help that I couldn't find. It has limited my life. But for me that was better than being with people who poke me in my vulnerabilities and then get mad at me for professing to be hurt by their behavior, and blame me for causing a family fracas when I say I won't tolerate being treated that way, and call me a liar when I tell the truth about things that happened when they weren't even there to know about.