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Ethical dilemmas

My bloody brother

10 replies

lizizdd · 05/09/2017 23:02

Maybe I'm just being horrible? My brother who will be 42 in November had a psychotic episode last year. Attempted suicide, serious self harm. He was married to a total psychopath a girl who made no attempt to do anything with her life. He always worked hard, but married her and lost his job ( he was a carer - the guy he looked after died. Nothing suspicious but my brother was understandably very upset and refused to look after anyone else). The said wife would appear with bruises and say my brother had hit her. We (my parents and my husband) would always say how unacceptable domestic violence was and perhaps ostracise my brother for a bit. They split up, then got back together when she announced she was pregnant. We've no idea if the baby is his, as she'll say he is, then he isn't the dad. My brother is too afraid to find out as he does love the little boy. To cut a long story short, this car crash of a marriage continued with my brother appearing more and more unkempt and depressed. We didn't see much of him despite him living close. Then she threw him out. And the self harm and suicide attempts started. My Mam and Dad were terrified and he became totally psychotic, hearing voices etc. With a lot of begging he was eventually admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he continued attempting suicide and ended up sectioned. It then transpired SHE was the perpetrator of the domestic violence and it was self inflicted injuries she had. My brother was too ashamed to tell us it was her. But what was worse, he became totally addicted to codeine, subutex and heroin which she was supplying. In hospital he was more or less detoxed and although the abuse and drug use was reported to the police there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute and he didn't want to anyway. Now, a year down the line my Mam and Dad do EVERYTHING for him. Cook, clean (they rented and furnished a flat for him and put themselves into serious debt doing so) give him money, make appointments etc as they're terrified he'll become ill again or will self harm again. He's totally ungrateful for all of this and expects and embraces the 'sick role' . I say they need to back off, make him do things for himself, get their lives back, but I'm apparently being horrible when I do. My Mam infers she would choose him over me if I pushed the situation because of his 'illness' and that's breaking my heart. So tell me AIBU?

OP posts:
Couchpotato3 · 05/09/2017 23:05

He's their child and they are looking after him. Are you jealous of the time/money/attention going on him? It sounds like he has been through hell and it could take him years to recover from all this - lucky him that he has his parents around to help. What do you mean by pushing the situation? Sounds like you would be better off backing away and getting on with your own life.

godconfusion · 05/09/2017 23:07

It's not up to you what they do. I'm sure they would have done the same for you if it was the other way round. You might feel it's unfair but they don't love you any less... they simply trust you to be ok and they're terrified they might lose him if they don't baby him

Let them do the parenting. Concentrate on yourself and ignore him being ungrateful.

Rainbowblume · 05/09/2017 23:10

I agree. You need to step away. I've had to just ignore my parents' behaviour with my brother. But I also won't discuss it since when they asked what they should do, they ignored my recommendations. Fair enough but I'm not listening to the fall out. I've concentrated on making my life as good as it can be.

Rainbowblume · 05/09/2017 23:11

Your brother does sound like he's had an awful time.o

LineysRun · 05/09/2017 23:12

Is the little boy all right?

godconfusion · 05/09/2017 23:13

Also MH isn't quite like "he can do this so he's okay now"

He's fragile. His psyche may well always be fragile now. Making him do things for himself will not make him tougher

He will probably have lost all faith in himself being able to do the most basic of tasks... once your reality has snapped once it's terrifying. Because when psychotic... it's everyone else who's mad. How do you know its actually you? And how do you know it won't just happen again?

There's a lot more than the surface of seeming normal again.

Oakmaiden · 05/09/2017 23:16

Why on earth would you "push the situation"? It sounds like he has been through hell. If you "pushed the situation" you would be saying - what? Either stop doing so much for my brother or I will - what would you do?

If one of my children tried to make me choose between themselves and a more vulnerable sibling (which I hope they will never, ever be selfish enough to do) then I would probably end up letting them go their way too.

mawbroon · 05/09/2017 23:22

Yabu
I had psychosis a few years back. It is almost always followed by post psychotic depression.
It took me two years before I could even begin to consider trying to function normally and another year or so to fully recover.
And that was without all the other shit that your poor brother has been through.

lizizdd · 06/09/2017 20:17

Well I suppose when I read it back like that I do sound unreasonable. However I'm not at all jealous of the time/money spent on him, I am however tired of being the sounding board and general agony aunt for everyone. I see my Mam and dad in tears over him. I see them borrowing money to pay their rent as they've given their last to him. I see the impact this is having on them. Then I have him who says he can't possibly help with his washing/cook his own meals/pay for his petrol because he's depressed. But if one of his mates says jump he says how high. I don't mean to sound harsh. I have a background in mental health, and will always help and defend him - when he is ill, not when he's using it as an excuse to get his own way and take no responsibility for his life or home. But I feel that the more everyone does for him, the less he will actually want to get better. And yes, my Mam and Dad would do the same for me, but I'd like to think I wouldn't take advantage so much.

OP posts:
Abbylee · 07/09/2017 03:06

They may feel guilty for not seeing the real story. Flowers

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