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Feel like giving up

12 replies

TateQueen · 16/08/2019 15:35

Single mum to two DC, one of whom is autistic and I feel like I have reached my limit with everything.

I wouldn't ever hurt myself because I wouldn't leave my children alone nor would I hurt my family like that but I just don't want to live. I don't have a life, I simply exist and every day is hard and there is no end to it.

I find myself almost wishing something would happen to me that would end this and I know that's wrong but I do.

OP posts:
interminablehellishwhatever · 16/08/2019 16:03

Hi @TateQueen, your situation is incredibly demanding and overwhelming for you at the moment. I understand you don't intend to harm yourself but unless something shifts soon you're carrying this desire for something drastic to end the situation, and that makes you feel worse about yourself.

Is there something in particular - or a significant build-up of different pressures - that has brought you to such a crisis point and prompted you to reach out here today? Sometimes it's really important to get clear about what might recently have changed or intensified so that you can explore (with some support) ways of challenging what's become specifically difficult or impossible to live with. Any sort of change to the status quo that might have impacted unfairly on you, added to your burdens, or left you feeling so hopeless? Change can have that effect on coping mechanisms that have been hard-won, and then everything feels just too much. I get the feeling that needs of your own just aren't being met, swallowed up by the needs of those you're responsible for in certain ways.

TateQueen · 16/08/2019 16:38

It's just been a long build up of having to deal with everything on my own. My DS is almost 10 but is much younger mentally although physically, can really knock lumps out of me.

My life is completely devoted to my DC which I know is not healthy for me or them but there really is no other way.

I've reached out for support because my DS is becoming more and more aggressive as he gets older, I've been nearly knocked out several times when he's caught me off guard and punched me in the head. Waiting times on the support however, are very long and I don't even know what that support would look like.

I feel like I'm failing both my DC because neither of them are getting what they need but I just don't know what to do anymore. There's no joy in anything, I've cried on and off all day which I try not to do around the kids but I'm just at my limit.

OP posts:
mineralmist · 16/08/2019 17:30

I'm sorry to hear that today has been so upsetting for you. It's very human and emotionally regulating to cry at times of deep distress, and the children will learn something about that need. You can't shield or protect them forever from the emotional side of what you do as a mother. You're understandably fed up and miserable at present, probably partly because the future feels so uncertain and the promised support seems distant and ill-defined. Is there anyone you can contact to update them on just how compromised you're feeling now by the increasing risk to your own physical safety?

I imagine the summer holidays place extra demands on your reserves of strength, and perhaps bring up feelings of failing the children if you're unable to give them experiences or days out like some other families do. But that would be very understandable in your situation, because you don't have enough support to do so. Your devotion to the children does you credit but it's likely (inevitable even) that you have ambivalent feelings about that which are likely to add to that feeling of failing them. It's really important to acknowledge that anyone in your situation isn't going to feel just positive, benevolent feelings towards their kids. So-called negative feelings - resentment, for example - are natural in such restricted circumstances, and some part of you will feel angry that your son (albeit unintentionally) can be such a risk to your own safety. I wonder if you can get some support that would allow you an opportunity, even occasionally, to talk about the different feelings that arise for you in your courageous but extremely challenging parenting role. Do you talk to anyone from week to week about how it affects you emotionally? Someone who can focus solely on what you're sharing with them, to give you a sense of being seen, heard and understood?

The devotion you offer your kids is precious to them, don't doubt that. But equally you need opportuntities to let others take some of the strain. You don't mention anything about their lives 'out of your sight', so to speak - friends, relatives, playdates, etc.

I'm really aware of the growing threat to your safety that your son's involuntary behaviour represents. The aggression must be alarming and distressing and you feel vulnerable to potential harm from him. On an emotional level that must be very confusing for you, to love your son as your child but also be afraid of him harming you in a way that we don't commonly associate with parent-child relationships. And being his sole caregiver means you never really get a break from that underlying threat, which must be exhausting at times. I don't want to ask too much about sources of support that might already be in place or have been explored without success, coz I figure you wouldn't be posting if you already had what you needed. But again, I come back to this question of your own needs and whether you can identify even small chinks of 'leverage' that would give you just brief breaks from all that pressure to be the only one caring for the children. Do you feel you manage better in some ways during term-time? And are there any recent or impending changes that your son is aware of that might be making him anxious at present, more than usual? I'm thinking stuff like changing schools or classes, people leaving his life for any reason? Because those sorts of events can have a subtle but definite impact on children's emotional health and yet we often underestimate those influences and so kids don't get an opportunity to explore how they're feeling about them with someone who 'gets it'. Behavioural changes can be a result of unresolved feelings for children, just as certain experiences and changes can affect our moods and choices as adults. Do you think he seems particularly prone to lashing out or getting very over-excited or demanding recently?

interminablehellishwhatever · 16/08/2019 17:34

^ Oops, just noticed my unintentional (and completely object-defeating) name change there! Smile

TateQueen · 22/09/2019 21:19

I know I'm going to come across like an attention seeking twat but I just don't know what to do anymore.

I found myself actually planning how I would kill myself, the how and where, making sure the kids would be picked up from school, the messages I would send to my family to apologise.

I'm too scared to tell anyone how I'm feeling because my kids would be taken away from me and they are all that keeps me chained here. I love them more than I can ever express but this life is beyond painful.

OP posts:
Mondayschild78 · 22/09/2019 23:48

I have an autistic child too and life is really hard. It’s exhausting and overwhelming. You are not alone. Please seek help as you sound in a low place at the moment. It will get better, don’t give up.

HerRoyalFattyness · 22/09/2019 23:53

Please please seek help. I was as low as you a few weeks ago.
Counselling and the right meds have really helped.
(And fwiw, I'm autistic and I know how hard work I am, so hats off to you for dealing with everything on your own!)

alexdgr8 · 23/09/2019 00:24

please ring you GP and ask for an urgent, same day appt.
ring early in the morning.
be polite but persistent.
tell them you are having a mental health crisis amnd need to speak to someone today.
then tell the GP / nurse practitioner exactly how you are feeling and what you are subject to in terms of being hit about the head, and being on your own with 2 children.
obviously I understand that one child is severly disabled and cannot be held accountable for his actions, but hta does not mean you are not in a very vulnerable position. blows are blows, and esp to the head are potentially very dangerous, as well as painful, frightening.
you need to detail all this to the healthcare professional.
there must be more help available, and you need it urgently now.
and you desrve it. you have carrying such a load for so long, no wonder you feel at the end of your tether.
please try to reach out and tell them how it is, what you have had to cope with. do not sanitise it. let us know how you get on. all the very best.

TateQueen · 23/09/2019 07:12

I can't speak to anyone, my children will be taken away and I couldn't bear it. Talking about it won't change anything, my life will still be as it is.

I'm broken inside, I remember very clearly feeling something go inside me a few years ago and it's never healed and I don't think it ever will.

OP posts:
soniamumsnet · 23/09/2019 08:20

Hello OP, we are really sorry to hear you are feeling this way.

We hope you don't mind, but when these threads are flagged up to us we usually add a link to our Mental Health resources.

You can also go to the Samaritans website or email them on [email protected]. Support from other Mumsnetters is great and we really hope you will be able to take some comfort from your fellow posters, but as other MNers will tell you, it's really a good idea to seek RL help and support as well.

We also like to remind everyone that, although we're awed daily by the astonishing support our members give each other through life's trickier twists and turns, we'd always caution anyone never to give more of themselves to another poster, emotionally or financially, than they can afford to spare.

HerRoyalFattyness · 23/09/2019 12:00

I can assure you that your children will not be taken from you.
Mine weren't. I was planning my suicide. And they never got taken.

NotMaryWhitehouse · 23/09/2019 13:41

@TateQueen I'm so sorry you feel so low, my partner is going through a bad patch at the moment and my heart aches for him.

There will be people in your life who will feel the same about you- do you have a sibling or parent or close friend, or even a colleague you can talk to?

I know it feels like a burden too big to share but I promise you, people will want to do their very best to help and support you.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, I know it probably doesn't feel like that to you at the moment.

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