Posted by sid on December 28, 2001, at 10:31:57
In reply to Family not supportive, posted by ivoovi on December 18, 2001, at 20:23:35
I never told my family about my depression. I was in another country when I had major depression, so it was easy to conceal the fact. Now that I am left with chronic depression, it is not a problem because I have had chronic depression my entire adult life. I know I'm not quite where I should be yet, but they don't. Overall, I consider it is none of their business. They should take care of their mental health themselves, but they are too clueless to realize that. So I won't run to them for help. Also when I was younger, I needed support from them at difficult times, and they were never there for me, except for my mother who is rather helpless herself due to functional illiteracy and lack of drive in general. In fact I had to take care of her at different times. So I quickly learned I needed to depend on myself only.
My sister is obsessed about the cleanliness of her house and she is afraid of everything outside her house, but she doesn't realize that it's not normal. Plus, her obnoxious husband, who likes nothing more than put me down all the time, would have more ammunition to bug me if I said anything, so I prefer they don't know. I should be helpless and somewhat of a slave to a man like my sister for him to like me - I'm the opposite of that ! I studied, worked and lived in 4 different countries over the years, I speak 4 languages and have a PhD - I am so different from what a woman should be, according to him, that he will always do his best to put me down. So I keep my mouth shut about anything personal. And finally, my mother is too old to worry about me, I leave her out of this. She deserves some peace and quiet at this point in her life.
But that's me. Others deal with it differently.
> So I'm on medication, and I've been trying to find the right medication for the past year. My dad thinks I should just go off all medication completely, and my mom shares this attitude. They don't understand - my dad is just concerned with the bottom line -- how it all hurts his bank account. I was wondering if there is any book or anything I can get to educate them about it.
>
> thanks,
> chris
poster:sid
thread:15771
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011216/msgs/15968.html