I have a relative who has been chosen to be on a TV show where they assist people who need their house cleaned and deal with their junk and their problems at the same time. The local paper has been playing it up.

The relative who is participating on the show has a problem with letting go of stuff. She has finally acknowledged this and the show is helping her to clean up, organize, sell and start over, hopefully on the path to not falling back into old ways. She is a peach, I love her dearly, and she has always tried to help others and I am overjoyed that someone is finally helping her deal with this, since it has overwhelmed her for a very long time.

We have a large extended family, with a lot of dysfunction and hostility between some people through the years. I'm lucky because I don't live near any of them and I have managed to maintain a healthy relationship with most of them, and I just stay away from the few I don't get along with.

The online version of the paper has the usual "comments" section. Each update has nasty remarks from some of the family members, who disguise their identities with various user names. I love 'em, but they are peeving me mightily with their garbage.

I've stayed out of it so far but I have to sit on my hands every time I check for updates, because I just want to Bi***slap some of them for what they are posting. It's easy to figure out who they are by what they have to say.

I will eventually have to deal with all of them and this whole thing is going to color my reactions now, when I do have to socialize with them. I hate that, because I've fought acting in the same way through the years. I find myself slipping backwards when I think of dealing with this situation.
It just makes me sad all over again that I don't have a family that I can trust to be supportive and loving and kind, even if they appear to be that way because I know that behind each others' backs, they are all hurting each other in any way they can.

I just don't understand why anyone would want to hurt someone from their own family in such an ugly way. What do they get out of this?