Told my brother I'm BP - strange response :-(

[olivia]

xxx

[scarlet_faery]

Damn, how rude!  Sounds like the way my family took it when they found out about all my mental health problems.  Mostly, my mother was like, and do you blame ME for all this???  Only because she abused me as a child all through my teenage years.  Now, everyone in my family just shakes their heads and throws their hands up in the air as if they don't know what to do with me.  I've tried to educate them.  Tried to have them come with me with my therapy sessions, but NO, that would be like infecting them with these god awful mental diseases. 

I'm so sorry your brother and his family treated you like this.  What jerks!  The least they could have done was be a little supportive.  I dunno what to tell you.  Maybe you should try and get some print outs about Bipolar Disorder and either send them to him and/or email them to him.  I don't know.  That's what I've been doing with my sister.  She's the one that doesn't really know how to handle me.  Especially with the Borderline Personality Disorder.  So I try my hardest to find all the information I can and email it to her, just to educate her on the subject.

I don't know if that will help or make matters worse, but that's what I have to do.  And I will still keep doing it because if I don't, my sister will never get it.  I actually talked a little about some of the meds that I've been on in my past last night when she invited me over to her place.  We live in a duplex.  She was beside herself.  She had NO idea how bad things had gotten for me a few years ago because she completely cut me from her life.  She works in a half-way house and her residents are on a lot of them meds that I've been on and at the same strengths.  When I told her about what happened to me when I was on Neurontin, the look on her face was....I don't know...her jaw just hung there in utter and complete shock.  She couldn't believe me, but yet she did.  I told her, now you know why I was such a mess all those years.  I couldn't stand myself, I couldn't take care of myself, I didn't know what I was doing, it was fucking scary!  I think by telling her this, she's beginning to understand why I am the way I am.  So, maybe gathering information up and giving it to your brother might be the best way to help him understand.  Then again, it might scare him off.

Wish I could give you more advice.  I still find their actions to be rude.  I mean, really, the least they could have done was to say, is there anything we can do to help?  But then again, I'm not the kind of person who would sit there gaping and say, does your insurance cover it?

Hugs,

Elizabeth

[outlier]

My response was even worse.

[Squirlygrl]

Oh, Olivia, I'm sorry. How lonely.

If it's relatively easy to talk to your brother, you might be able to catch him alone over morning coffee and say something like "Gosh, I feel awkward now.

[Greenyflower]

Olivia,

I'm so sorry for your experience with your brother. Here you gathered yourself up to share some very difficult information about yourself and you get.....silence. Not even a token, "Gee, how awful for you."

My mom occasionally asks me if I'm off those pills yet. Uh, no, Mom, I'm actually taking a couple of different ones. Oh.                How do you like those Yankees?

Sometimes I get the sense that they think I'm making it up. For what !? Like I want more attention? No thanks.

Oh, well.

Sometimes they come around, at least enough that you don't feel you are obligated to hide reality from them.

Greeny

[ethereal]

I'm sorry you didn't get the response you wanted. They probably didn't know WHAT to say so opted for staring/asking about insurance. I think some people really are missing the empathy gene. At least you can feel that you tried your best to have a real relationship, even if it was not reciprocated.

[Guest Guest]

So,  does your insurance cover it?

Remember boys express themselves differently than girls.  Especially nerdy math type dudes

[withing]

That's too bad Olivia, but as suggested before, maybe he does need some time to adjust to the idea.  My uncle is the same way.  I had to buy him a book before he would even believe there was such a thing, and even now, he's skeptical (he's a mechanical engineer professor).

I feel for you though.  Responses among my family and friends ranged from: "Well, that explains a lot" to, "No, you're not" to my favorite,  "You just use that as an excuse to act any way you want."

I hope it works out for you.

[Sulu]

Olivia, glad you saw him today and didn't feel too bad about it.  Probably in time he will want to talk about it.  I think you handled it very well.  sulu