My sister, whom I love dearly, is going thru one of the worst, most depressing periods in her life right now and I feel helpless to encourage her in any way. She has lived a life of drug abuse and eating disorders after being sexually abused as a child and raped as a teenager...and all of this went mostly unnoticed in our fairly normal, slightly dysfunctional family.
She was the 5th of 7 kids (I'm the second) maybe there was just too much going on at the time...maybe it was her nature of turning everything inward that allowed her to disappear in the crowd....but it kept her from reaching out to anyone around her. We were too busy with our own realities to be overly concerned with the wall-flower who drifted along in our wake. She has grown up to be a broken, sad, incredibly funny (yes, that's there too) tormented individual who at this point can find little reason to get up in the morning. She is seeing a therapist, thank God, she has started a blog, for better or worse, and she does have an incredibly caring partner (they are gay but abstinent Christians who have decided to break away from the lifestyle...whole other post there).
I am frustrated because I don't know what I can do to help her and I feel guilty for not noticing her while I was growing up...not protecting her from the bad guys. My childhood was happy, normal, fun....and hers was a nightmare. How could I have missed this sad little creature living down the hall from me....why didn't I take care of her....and where the hell were my parents?
Download The Exile iPad Pro PDF
3 years ago
2 comments:
I'm so sad to hear this. I, too, was raped as a teenager and had lots of depression and health probs. It's a bitch. I had a great childhood and have great people around me but it still sucks.
When you're in that feeling (depressed, despair, dark...), you feel so alone. I always liked being valedated and listened to. That is all you can do.
thank you SO much for this comment....I love my sis so much but sometimes she gets into such a state of 'pitiful me' that I start to lose interest...and I need to be reminded that my caring for her is important. I can't feel what she is feeling but I CAN be there to listen....thanks for letting me know how important that is.
Post a Comment