I'm 38 and my brother is 42. He has always had mental health issues. But lately he's been getting worse.
We both had very bad childhoods.
We didn't have a dad and our mother was abusive. So we have suffered.
However as an adult I am now working full time and living by myself.
He is not working , he is on disability allowance for mental health issues.
We have an entangled relationship. In that I know he had a really bad childhood and I feel sorry for him, and i feel a bit responsible to help him....yet I also feel like he is making my life a misery as an adult. There's only so much I can do for him. I have to look after myself. Any suggestions I make, he ignores. He says he's isolated. I say "why don't you go and join this group you went to ages ago, you liked it there' but he won't go. He has one part time support worker that goes round and helps him.
He has talked about suicide and death many many times to me. Nearly on every third phone call he says he wants to die. . He has never attempted suicide that i know of. So I believe that when he says he wants to die, it is how he is expressing his suffering in words, it doesn't mean he's actually going to go out and kill himself.
However him saying it to me all the time, is causing me a huge amount of stress.
He also expects me to jump to help him whenever he wants me. And it is really stressing me out. Especially as he talks in such extreme ways. He never says 'I'm feeling bad". It's always "I want to die
Ill talk about two issues in particular.
For example three weeks ago he felt he had a panic attack late at night, and he called an ambulance to bring him into hospital. he started ringing me at 11.30 pm. I was in bed. I had to get up to go to work the next day at 6am. I have a very stressful job. I didn't answer his calls.
He then left me voicemails saying
"contact me now. I'll be dead soon!"
I did start crying at this. He was discharged the next day. And i rang him back the next day and I said he upset me and that I had to get up for work very early the next morning. And he said "eh are you aware i nearly died".
He's angry with me and said "you didn't care that I had a psychotic break' and "are you aware that I nearly died" and he called me cold. And be said that I wasn't there for him.
and I tried to explain that I have to work very early.
I said "you called me at nearly midnight. I had to get up to work the next day at 6am".
He doesn't work.
The whole next week during every one of my lunchbreaks, I spent every one of my lunchbreaks calling some therapists and support services to go and help him. He's my older brother. I didn't get any thanks or acknowlegement for this
Then last week I was on booked annual leave, and I went on holiday abroad. This is the only holiday I will get all year. I called him on the last day of my holiday, yesterday, I was there (more fool measto say hello.
The first thing he said was "I think we should go our separate ways and not talk to each other anymore. " I said " why" and he said " because you weren't there for me when i was in hospital". I said again to him "I had to work early the next morning". As soon as I had time to help you the next week , I called lots of support services for you. I did that on my lunchbreak. He has said before to me at various times that he won't talk to me again, because I've "done something wrong"
He can never grasp that I have to work. He never thinks about my day. Its all about him.
Then in the same phonecall he said "I want to die. There's no point in living. I'm going to do euthansia".
This is obviously upsetting to listen to whem im on my holiday. I did burst out crying after the call. Like i feel i cant even go to spain without listening to the most awful things. Like he will say the most extreme things. Until I feel dead with stress.
I got off the phone with him yesterday, and I was roaring crying. I was thinking "this is my only holiday all year from my really stressful job, and I have to listen to him talking about death and dying again. It's terribly stressful to listen to. Hearing someone say they want to die over and over, is incredibly upsetting to listen to. It makes me feel ill to hear it.
I rang him this morning and I said "it's my only holiday all year, can you not talk about death and dying for once.
And he said "well don't ask me how I am then" and hung up on me.
And I know if I ever ring him in the future, he will say I was nasty to him
I'm just not sure what to do. I just feel absolutely ill with stress from it all. We have no other siblings.
Sometimes it feels like I can't escape. I don't know how to handle him.