My Mum is not the nicest of people. She has in the past exaggerated illness to get attention from people and to exert control. I have what they call "abuse syndrome" as a result of being raised by her.
Last 3 years she's been showing significant cognitive decline. However, the minute you get her in front of a social worker, she is much better. She barely speaks to me, and acts extremely oddly around me. Have heard from my step siblings though that she's been telling them she "finds me difficult" and wishes she could see her grandchild without seeing me. This is new - normally she'd be very careful to appear to be a doting mother and then do the less doting stuff behind closed doors.
The step children dispise her because of how she treats their Dad. She gets very upset if he spends longer than 5 minutes on the phone to them or tries to visit them. If he doesn't do as she wants, she physically attacks him. He's been seen with bruises, a split lip and teeth marks.
I joined forces with my step sister and reported this to social services, and they said she either voluntarily complied with diagnostic tests or they would need to evaluate the situation further. They told me the next step would be a type of section to enable diagnosis.
She had a CT scan today. Apparently there was a big fuss. I don't know why, but that REALLY upsets me.
And I'm not sure what I'm hoping for. If the scan is clear, then it's as a fear - she's exaggerating how bad her memory is to get attention and control people (and to justify treating my step dad and me like shit).
But then what kind of messed up situation is this that I'm wishing my own mother had some kind of brain disease?