- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
You’ll never know but try not to look at it as a disadvantage. Idk your brother but perhaps his internal world isn’t as pristine as it seems. I felt for a very long time that I was the one in my family who didn’t have any mental health concerns. Turns out I was high functioning and uneducated. And a little out of touch with myself to be honest... As the world continues to gain knowledge of the intricacies and nuances of the human mind it’s likely we’ll hit a point when we no longer see “neurodivergent” people as having an illness, but as just having a different mode of brain function that simply needs to be understood, managed, and navigated. A long winded way of saying “idk but it’s ok, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with you.”
I just feel like if he had a mental health issues he’d be way more understanding instead of making fun of me for things i can’t control
@SarahEliza I feel that. It’s not okay that he pokes fun about it. Maybe he would benefit from watching some of the family support videos out there? In my experience, no one escapes life unscathed by their own mind. It could be that his time to face his demons hasn’t yet come. He is only 18yo after all. I hope he’ll come around to educating himself about the struggles you go through sooner than later. Not having the support we need makes dealing with all of this a lot harder. In the meantime, try to find the goodies in your own bag. 🙂 For example, having to deal with what you do has likely made you a much more empathetic and compassionate person than you may otherwise have been. And the world needs more people who understand and have space for one another. Hey, maybe that’s why the world is experiencing a mental health spike in the first place. Maybe it’s adjusting the way we relate to one another at a fundamental level? There’s always a new way of looking at our situations and extracting the potential from it to make our challenges our strengths. Anyway good luck! You deserve a happy and fulfilled life.
Genetics 🧬
it’s so frustrating because my brother doesn’t have any 😭
@SarahEliza Roll of the dice sometimes.
@SarahEliza Same my brother doesn't have any mental illness and I got hundreds hahaha :(
@SarahEliza Same with my sis
@LydiaK i’m just like how did i get so unlucky lmao… also my brother is like 18 and he tries to give me advice and it pisses me off because he literally has no idea what it’s like. plus he’s younger than me lol
@Gago same it’s so great 🤭
@SarahEliza I get you, it's annoying when people try to "give advice" and tell you to "just do things" as if it's easy when they have no idea what it's really like. Most think we can just turn ocd off or something lol
@LydiaK that’s what my moms like, i’m like bro if it was that easy to just do it i wouldn’t be struggling everyday of my damn life lmao… or like sometimes they’ll be very condescending about it or try to make me feel like a freak and i’m just like i already feel that way
@SarahEliza Something similar happens with me too, they treat me like "Everyone's like that at times" and expect me to act as if I'm alright all the time. They treat the same way my Grandma too, she suffers from generalized anxiety disorder.
so true
it’s great, isn’t it 😀
My brain is making me feel like I wanna do the harm to my family … and is questioning how haven’t I done it yet like wtf??? My thoughts sound crazy
LONG VENT POST: This is my second post of the day. Seriously, I am SO sorry. I have therapy tomorrow, I promise I will shut up after this lmao. Anyway, for Memorial Day weekend, I spent it at my aunt/uncles vacation house. Fortunately it wasn’t a big crowd - just my mom, grandmother, aunt, uncle and I. For context, I come from a pretty big family, and I am the youngest of 7 cousins and a younger sister to two brothers. All my cousins are in their early to mid 20’s, each very successful in school and their careers. My half brother is 29, and absolutely crushing it. My full brother is turning 23, he’s also doing amazing with school. I just turned 20 in April, I feel very lost. I know I want to be a forensic psychiatrist one day, and that I want my PhD. I want to be the best therapist I can be, but the fact that I barely get by with ocd/adhd has been discouraging me, so I currently feel like a flop. Anyway though, spending time with my aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents triggers my ocd the most, as majority of them can be on the judgmental side. ESPECIALLY my aunt, she’s on my moms side, and she and my mom are total opposites. My aunts a very calculated, straightforward, logical, stern, sassy buisnesswoman. She’s successful, but lacks a lot of understanding and can be so cold and just mean. My moms a kindergarten teacher in a struggling community, and she’s always thinking about others before herself, extremely emotional, caring, but neglects her own needs a lot. They’re sisters, and they bump heads a ton. My aunt and all of her kids aren’t neurodivergent. They simply don’t understand mental health. My mom does, thank god. My aunt and uncle think that if a kid is having a psychotic break, then that kid should be kicked out of the house and not helped at all. My mom and I entirely disagree with this idea, and that someone clearly mentally suffering NEEDS mental health help asap, and they need to be home. The streets are the last place someone suffering should be. While we were vacationing at the house, my mom argued about this with my uncle. I was asleep, thank god, but I seriously hate having people in my family like this. I can never tell them about me having ocd, they’ll think it’s just an “excuse” for not getting things done, or just me trying to feel special. The reality is, they don’t get it. My full brother went through the worst psychotic break a few years ago. It lasted two years on and off due to bipolar disorder, but thank god he got himself help and he’s doing absolutely amazing now. He’s frustrated and embarassed with himself but now he’s on track, and as I said, crushing it with school. But the entire time he was going through this, my aunt and uncle just didn’t understand. To keep it short, they thought his mental problems were behavioral, and that he’s a “crazy” kid. The reality is, he was coping with the loss of his childhood best friend and our other uncle who was like a second father figure to us. He had manic episodes from the grief and self medicating with drugs and alcohol. This was all the while Covid was happening and he was a freshman at a college states away. He was so vunerable. I’m saying all this because, well, how am I to seriously be forward about my mental struggles when they couldn’t even show the slightest amount of empathy to my brother, who was struggling, so much more intensely than me? I’m quiet at family gatherings when they’re around for this exact reason. I have so much resentment toward them for it. I try to avoid them when I can, because I love them, I just hate their actions/views. What do you guys do with these kinds of people?
Before I start this let me preface with this: My dad was abusive and would scream and hit me. Me and my girlfriend just came back yesterday from a long trip in the Bay, surrounded by family and getting little to no sleep, even before we went to the Bay. I had work today, a long, stressful shift. I come home and find out that not 1, but 3 of her friends are spending the night. This would be fine but they are spending the night in our small, hot, stuffy room, on the second bed. I am getting so upset. I feel like I havent had a break at all from people and I'm getting so overstimulated and angry at myself. I keep getting the visions and compulsions of screaming at them like my dad would or straight up just snapping at them. It's all in my head. There's just a pit of rage in my stomach. I don't want to hurt them but my brain wants me too. I'm so mad at myself for even thinking about this. If it wasn't 100 degrees I would have taken a walk but the heat just stresses me even more. I don't want to be my dad. Ever. He always told me that I got the darker part of his brain and inherited his mindscape, and he always said it with pride and I feel so upset.
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