Caroline (not her real name) got in touch with us to tell us about the torment she and her family are going through in trying to cope with their brother's episodes of psychosis, whilst they also struggle to come to terms with the death of their father.
She and her family are desperate for any help they can get. This is her own personal account of what they have been through. Her details are with the editor.
Some readers may find the content of this article distressing.
*****
A year ago this week I lost my Dad.
He died suddenly and without warning, on the holiday of a lifetime with friends. It was almost two weeks before we could even get him home. I live with my Mum and my brothers. I'm the eldest, in my late twenties and the only girl. My youngest brother is not yet a teenager.
I wish this was a piece about grief.
I wish I was writing about how we coped, how far we've come, how we've dealt with that pain, picked up the shards of our broken family, and pieced them back together around the gaping hole of that loss.
But it isn't.
The truth is that my family hasn't been given the chance to really grieve, to take the time to nurse our wounds and pick ourselves up again.
My brother is very ill.
He has been struggling with his mental health for most of his life. He began to self-harm in his teens, and was an unhappy child. We lived abroad and he never really fitted in. As he grew older, he began to self-medicate, relying on alcohol to numb his pain when doctors and medication didn't help.
By the time our family realised how serious his problems were, and that he needed help - help he was both unwilling and unable to look for himself - it was too late. He was an adult, and that means that, in Ireland, we are denied any right to help him when he is not in a position to help himself. To date he has made multiple suicide attempts.
Source: joe.ie, 02/12/15
Safer Student Nights
eBulletin
Poll
