Parental Alienation Has Had a

Parental Alienation has had a profound impact on my life. Being separated from my son is the most dramatic event I have ever experienced. Ideally, I would be writing about the joy of marriage and fatherhood. For a time, there was nothing more pleasurable in my life. I met a woman in Chile and had a child with her there. There is truly nothing that can compare with the joy of becoming a father for the first time.

Perhaps that is why there is nothing worse than the pain of parental alienation. To have the greatest gift you have ever been given taken away from you, it is a pain unimaginable to those who have been lucky enough to have never experienced it. The marriage ended and I returned to the United States. My son remains in Chile, a continent away. Such a physical distance is enough to cause anxiety on its own - the opportunities to share my love would always be few and far between.

However, my ex-wife has created a wedge between my son and myself. He is forbidden to come to the U.S. To see me and likewise I am forbidden to visit him in Chile. She visits the U.S., even to my hometown, and yet I still do not see my son. It is the most devastating thing I have ever encountered. It is understandable that she and I do not get along. That is part of life, that a love once so strong can turn to something so awful.

But ill will is not an inevitability. The desire to hurt one another is not a given. Whatever animosity that exists between us, however unfortunate, should nonetheless remain between us. That would be a cross for us to bear, the two of us. What is unforgivable is the way in which she has split our entire family. My son has been forced to choose sides, and she fills his head with terrible thoughts.

Her choice to punish me, that is her choice but it should have nothing to do with our son. A boy needs a strong father if he is to grow up as a strong, good man. There are so many lessons I need to teach him and I am being denied the opportunity to do so. Instead of helping him fulfill his best potential, I am forced to sit here, unable to do anything, completely without recourse.

A used to think that divorce and separation from one's child was something that happened to other people. I would hear stories about their pain and for some reason it simply never hit home. But the pain of parental alienation is real - a growing body of evidence shows that it can lead to lost productivity, depression and suicide. The toll it takes on my son must also be enormous. I can only imagine how he must feel.

It takes a lot of courage for me to put this experience aside. I am strong. I know that if I can survive this, I can survive anything. My son is my greatest treasure. Every moment he is in my heart. I know that deep down,.