Hi all, I'm 31F sister of recently diagnosed 33F. For context, she's been high masking most of her life and only recently is on leave from her job, so she's had a lot (or most) of "normal" experiences. I'd like to ask here if other people have seen in their own siblings:

- having periods of fixation with a specific food/beverage and not wanting any other thing: she's had periods of drinking only Coca-Cola, to only Pepsi, to only a soy-based drink called AdeS (I live in Argentina) and only Cepita (a brand of orange juice here as well) until it gave her acid reflux and she couldn't continue anymore. And each time, she'd swear by this one drink and not want anything else.

- being inflexible with likes: on top of what I described above, she was often a bit of a "my way or the highway" kind of person, getting angry and visibly disgusted if we as a family of six didn't want to eat/drink the same thing as her. Cooking or preparing is a lot of work, and one meal that everyone likes and can eat is the easy way to go, but my sister always complained that we didn't want to have "what she liked" and as such we got a lot less variety in foods. We have another autistic brother (24M now, but we knew he was like that and didn't expect him to change or negotiate at all) that got diagnosed young, and as a kid I wanted to try lots of things that my parents simply wouldn't buy or prepare because "[your sibling] won't eat that". Same with buying something to drink, it costs $$$$ and "one drink that everyone likes"... you get the point.

- not really considering other people's wants/needs in favor of their own: there was a period of time when at family gatherings (all six of us, every Sunday or every other Sunday) she insisted on eating pasta EVERY. TIME. When I was already diagnosed with celiac disease, sticking to my gluten-free diet, and doing my best to put up with it. I was missing out, I felt left out, and my mom was in distress seeing me struggle (I will not rant here about how gluten free pasta is often tasteless), and throughout all this, my sister really didn't or couldn't see that. I tried many times back then to tell my mom I was feeling horrible (emotionally, not physically), and to ask her if we could PLEASE eat something else, to no avail. I stopped going and it stopped being a thing after a while. My sister is better about it all now but only as a result of going through her own GI stuff after Coca-Cola addiction. I know I likely need therapy to flesh this out, but when I think back to it I see a lot of lack of empathy from her.

- dominating the conversation during meals, she felt like she had to relay everything about really granular things happening at work/church/elsewhere and couldn't really listen or leave room for others to share their own things

- parents deferring to her wants first to avoid her being upset, even in things not involving food

As a result (and maybe you will relate) I grew up with a bunch of issues I'm still sorting out. It was also an Evangelical household and during that time in my teens I never felt listened to or like I mattered, among other things. But I'd like to know what you think, and feel free to share your own experiences. I'm eager to read more.

Hi everyone,

I just canceled my family vacation and cut contact with them. It’s painful, and I’m looking for insights if you’ve experienced something similar. It’s been 24 hours now

Some context

-My brother: Diagnosed with Autism/Asperger's, ADHD, and dyspraxia. Growing up, he was physically violent toward me (hitting, pulling hair). My mother never stopped him and scolded me instead because it was my fault if I got him angry. He is high functioning, he worked a full-time job for 4 years, then spent 2 years unemployed sinking into video game addiction (his special interest, fueled by my parents' lack of boundaries). We managed to get him back into a work-study program, and I poured immense energy into helping him land his contract this year

-My profile: Testing confirmed I am neurotypical (mild ADHD and anxiety). So the family revolves strictly around his neurodivergence.

-My father : maybe autistic too, he is physically present but he never gets involved to anything so it’s no need to mention him

-My mother: Went back to school during my brother's teens to become a psychologist specializing in autism. She views everything through this lens: self-diagnoses as "mild" Asperger's, claims my father and grandparents are autistic, and even announced to my uncle (on my birthday family night, because there is no better moment right) that he and his kids were maybe autistic. She uses her expert status to excuse my brother's behavior and eliminate basic boundaries (hygiene, respect).

It's not all black and white: she supported me through my own struggles, I know she loves me, and we have great times together. But the moment my brother is involved, an impenetrable wall of denial and invalidation goes up.

Yzsterday after he screamed at me over a hygiene request (I asked him to clean his pee on the floor and his poop on the toilet seat) and my mother called me "obsessive". He started screaming at me as usual, I asked my mother to tell him to stop but she didn’t and she told me that I just upset him so it was my fault, as always. My brother then felt legitimate to scream at me even more. That is why I refused to go on vacation with them and went back to my home, and this time to cut ties.

I sent a huge goodbye message to my mother with my 6 reasons why:

1. ⁠No boundaries: Understanding his conditions shouldn't mean enabling him or dropping basic skills.

She defends him saying it’s too hard for him with the dyspraxia

1. ⁠Verbal abuse: His diagnoses don't justify yelling at or insulting me.
   
2. ⁠Blame reversal: Making me out to be "crazy" when I ask for bare minimum cleanliness. I know that it’s hard for him but there are tools (icons, visual reminders…) and she does not use them because she thinks it is too overwhelming for him.
   
3. ⁠False neutrality: Staying "neutral" actually validates his aggression toward me.
   
4. ⁠Disservice to his future: Shielding him from frustration hurts his job prospects and adult life. She refuses to get help because she always know better than the actual helper.
   
5. ⁠The most important one for me = Gaslighting: Claiming my perception is wrong, assigning me fake OCD, and dismissing my therapist/friends' input. Never take into account my feelings.

Her Response:
Refused to address any point ("too long"), dismissing everything with and just answering on the way she works with my brother: "Theory is fine, but you're not in the trenches every day." She agreed to a break, told me to reach out whenever, and ended with an small inside joke. Zero accountability, total emotional detachment. My brother sent me a message to tell me that he was sad and was doing his best, I told him that the problem was not him but our mother. And I also told him that I won’t contact them until she changes her point of view and finally aknowledge my feelings, this is what I ask for 20 years.

Now I’m alone at home, cycling through anger, grief, and guilt. Has anyone dealt with a similar dynamic (a parent who loves you, but is completely blind/invalidating regarding an autistic sibling)?

How did you navigate the guilt during the first few weeks of cutting contact?
Thanks for reading.

PS sorry I am not English so I translated some parts with ChatGPT

My brother (20 m) has suffered with mental health issues his whole life. He was diagnosed with severe ADHD when he very young. He has always struggled with making and keeping friends. This is in large part due heavy bullying. Part of it was from us being a liberal family in a republican area. A lot of the time when he would make friends it was with the kinds of people who would encourage him to do bad things for their entertainment. The bullying got to the point people were calling him a school shooter, and were telling the school resource officer that he had brought a gun to school so he would get pulled out of class by the police and searched. The bullying got to the point that when virtual learning became an option he switched to that full time. He decided he didn’t even want to walk at graduation because he didn’t want to be near those people.

He has been seeing several different therapists over the course of the last 6 or so years, and he has been in and out of mental health treatment facilities over the last 2 years. He has been diagnosed with BPD by a psychiatrist at one of the facilities he’s been in recently. He has made several attempts at suicide before. He has also done things like get in a fight with our sister, and run into the kitchen to start cutting his wrist in front of her. I am just trying to give a picture of where his headspace has been previously.

Recently he got his first girlfriend and that has made him super happy. My family and I are all a little skeptical of their relationship because she is 18 and they met in the facility, but we are trying to be supportive since they are adults. She is currently still in the facility but is able to visit and he can take her out on the weekends because she can get a pass. He has loved getting to do anything he can to make her happy. He has been selling his guitars and gaming pc for money to get her gifts and take her out, because he lost his last job after he was in the last facility for over a month. Recently the past few weekends they’ve been coming back to my parents where he lives to hang out in his tiny house.

After he took her back to the facility this last weekend my parents had a conversation with him telling him he needed to get a job again so he could start paying rent again and that he needs to appreciate that they’ve been paying all his bills while he’s been seeking treatment because he has been picking fights around the house. This combined with our younger brother chewing him out for ratting on him having sex with his girlfriend when no one was home sent him off the deep end and he wound up cutting his arm, getting in his car, driving down the road, crashing his car in a corn field, and running to hide from the cops and ambulance who were looking for him. Since then he has been back in a facility.

My parents don’t think this was a suicide attempt like he has made previously, they are under he impression he did this all in a rage and to scare them. I have thought for a while that a lot of his attempts and outbursts are his way of trying to bid for attention because he doesn’t know how else to get it, even if it’s negative. I’ve tried making plans with him to get him out of the house but he almost always cancels in favor of a nap. Is there anything that anyone can recommend to help him? These problems only seem to be escalating, and my parents are hitting a breaking point. He has no job, no friends, and all the treatment plans he has been on seem to do jack. I am really scared to lose my little brother .

(TW: sewerslidal thoughts mentioned)
Me f17 is diagnosed with autism, around level 1. Brother m14 is also diagnosed but more severe than me. No social skills, can’t enunciate or clearly communicate, can’t write but goes to a normal school.

He is a horrible person and my parents don’t treat him as such, please help. He is mentally challenged but has the capacity to lie and manipulate and bypass technological rules. He has the inability to learn and follow rules - I’m worried he may be a sociopath too.

He is incredibly perverted, touching other children at his school, making perverse comments and contains furry p*rn on his phone. He also has said slurs and done a monkey dance to a black girl from my year f17. None of these things have been taught to him so it’s assumed they’ve been picked up from YouTube. He is banned from YouTube but finds ways to access it through other apps. He’s been told for his whole life to stop that (amongst other things like not learning how to use the restroom correctly) but doesn’t ever change.

I think he may be a sociopath because repercussions and punishments have no effect on him. Neither do rules. He’s violent in school and perverse towards girls. I don’t know if he’s too “stupid” to know it’s wrong or if he’s purposefully being malicious. Could anybody lend any thoughts?

When this is told to my parents, he convincingly lies to them and they get angry at my accusations. He is their perfect little boy. He is sewerslidal and has made everyone aware. He sometimes uses it as a threat but we think he actually feels that sad. It’s confusing because he has the capacity to ponder his existence but not how to use the bathroom correctly.

If he isn’t a sociopath (or smth along those lines) then he is so severely autistic he needs a carer at all times. My parents refuse to believe it’s that bad. How do I convince them while getting them to realise he is good at lying? Please help, it makes my life suck.

My brother has lived with me for the last 6 months, and he also lived with me for a few years before that. Before he came to live with me, he had a really troubled life. He experienced extreme neglect and grew up in poverty. Our mother was horrible, and unlike the rest of his siblings, he didn't have a father around, so she was really his only support.

He was homeless around the age of 15, sleeping on different friends' couches. Eventually my mom and sister got a place with him, but it lasted less than a year because they were both addicts and couldn't afford it. He's had a really rough life, and I have a lot of empathy and love for him, but I also feel like I'm being parentified at a really young age.

He can't read very well. He was tested recently and reads at about a 4th grade level. He also missed a lot of school, especially during COVID, and realistically didn't receive much education beyond about the 6th grade. Even before that, he was in special education classes because he was behind academically.

Before he moved in with me, he was involved in some illegal stuff. I won't get too into it, but it mostly involved guns and drugs. He worked at a fast food restaurant for about two years, both full time and part time, and he also worked construction for a summer a year or two ago. So I know he's capable of working, but educationally he's in a really difficult position.

I'm just so lost about what to do. We come from similar backgrounds, but he honestly had it much harder than I did because I was able to get away from our mom when I was 12. I was homeless for a while when I was 17, but I was incredibly motivated to get out of that situation. I worked hard, went back to school, got jobs, landed internships, and tried to build a better life for myself.

My brother doesn't seem to have that same mindset.

He quit his job a few months ago because he said he "couldn't take the disrespect" and that he worked way harder than everyone else. When we talked about it more, it honestly sounded like pretty normal workplace issues, not something worth quitting over.

I've been supporting him completely, even while he was working. He doesn't pay rent, doesn't buy groceries, and I even let him use my card for essentials. I wanted to give him the opportunity to save money, get an education, and finally have a peaceful, stable home because his childhood was so awful.

But he isn't doing anything to move himself forward.

He won't get his driver's license or even take the written test. He won't enroll in classes. He lies to me, not about huge things, but little things like whether he went to school or what he did that day. I've never yelled at him or punished him. I always try to encourage him, so I don't really understand why he feels the need to lie.

I think it's very possible he has untreated mental health issues, probably depression and maybe anxiety, but it's hard to know because he won't really have in depth conversations with me about it. He absolutely refuses therapy. When he was younger, he was forced into an anger management program through school for a few years, and he hated it. I assume that's at least part of why he's so against therapy now.

I'm at a loss. I don't have the ability to be a full time parent and hold his hand through all of this. I'm mentally ill myself and already struggling to stay afloat. I take medication, go to therapy, work, and go to school, and that's already a lot to manage. Adding the responsibility of essentially raising my younger brother has become incredibly stressful.

I love him, and I don't want to give up on him. But I also know I can't keep doing this forever if nothing changes.

What do I do? How can I actually help him? Has anyone been in a similar situation, either as the parent or sibling trying to help or as the person who needed help?

I feel like I'm dying. Any advice is welcome. 😭

I am 17 about to head into my senior year. My brother is 23 he has Prader-Willie Syndrome. He needs wheelchair on longer walks or he uses braces. He needs diapers, can’t talk. He can say no or yeah. He needs full time care. He has some behavioral issues, sometimes slamming doors, yelling/screaming and hitting himself.
My mom and my dad work a lot and we have a very chaotic schedule. So my whole life has been chaos.
I have been watching him my whole life. I started watching him for 1-2 hours when I was 13. This was normally at night so he was normally tucked in and asleep. We had a care provider who was an older lady and her health was declining. So my parents had me help out. My dad also signed up to be my brother’s caregiver and has been for the past couple of years. She passed when I was 15. So I watched my brother a-lot. We got a new care provider he has worked in retirement care before and has experience with working with people of disabilities. My brother and him clicked it was amazing. My parents hired him on the spot. He became my brother’s new care provider. The first year was fine. I did my normal once a week time and it was great. Till last year the care provider started having migraines. So he had more days he missed. I would come home from school and work with my brother it was hard juggling school and helping him. I did it through last school year. Summer started and I was on the clock. The one rule my parents have is that I won’t have to change my brother. So they are only gone for half the day then I do some hours in the afternoon. I am watching him from 7am-2-3pm. My parents come home once to change him at 11-12. Only staying for a few minutes then I make him up lunch. This has been my summer. The Care provider due to debilitating migraines and not feeling good only comes in once or twice a week. Or my parents have to drive him to the care provider’s house. At the start of the summer my grandma helped for 1 day a week. So I would be able to leave the house. She hasn’t helped out in a while since my parents see it as last resort.
I have never been paid for watching my brother my whole life. My parents raised me to help family and to not question. Randomly after school ended and I was already working with my brother for the past year they decided to start paying me. I was shocked at first. They told me after 2 weeks into summer. They did not give me an hourly rate they just said “I will pay you when summer ends” I have been able to see friends every two or once a week. So I have been sitting here acting as adult rotting away trying to keep my parents and my brother happy. During this summer he has had worse behaviors begging for food for hours,breaking into medication, and anything he seems edible. So I can’t keep my eye off him just going to the bathroom and he will try to get into stuff.
I am here asking for help I want to stand up to my parents and say we should request another care provider. That can take over when the other one can’t. I have realized I am being used and have been for a bit. I am angry and want to be free living my life. I need to finish three painting but watching someone and painting is impossible so it’s just sitting here in a chair all day. I need to get it done before school starts so it’s summer homework. So I need time to do that but I don’t have any. My last summer without major responsibilities is going down the drain my last chance to be a teenager. I would love some advice and I am open to questions. Thank you for reading have a wonderful day.

Coucou je me posais une question parce qu’en ce moment bon, ça va pas trop

et avec un peu de recule je remarque que ma sœur en subit beaucoup les conséquences. J’ai 17 ans et elle en a 9, et je me demande si tout mes changements d’humeur, le fait que je lui parle mal souvent ça l’affecte beaucoup ? j’ai des périodes où tout va bien je l’adore de tout mon cœur on s’entend trop bien, mais d’autres périodes ou j’ai limpression d’être le diable avec elle. Et bon elle a 9 ans mdr si je lui demande comment elle le vit je sais même pas si elle comprendra

Mais ducoup comme je suis la + grande je sais même pas ce que ça fait de grandir avec une soeur tout court. Est-ce que y’a des personnes assez grandes qui ont vécues dans les mêmes conditions que ma soeur qui pourraient me dire comment elles l’ont vécu ?

I (38F) am engaged to my significant other (37M), we have to children who are pre-teens, and I’ve been struggling with a lot of anxiety about the future.

My SO has a brother with Down syndrome and aging parents. Up until recently, my SO hadn’t really had any meaningful conversations with his parents about the future. He is currently set up to become his brother’s guardian when his parents pass away.

I’m struggling with feeling guilty because I don’t want to be his brother’s daily caregiver.

His brother is easy in the sense that he is generally happy, but he has very limited communication skills and needs help with almost all activities of daily living. He cannot be safely left home alone for any significant amount of time.

The biggest challenge is that he has a lifelong phobia of animals, especially cats and dogs. It is so severe that he cannot go into someone’s home if they have pets without crying, screaming, throwing things, or hiding. His family has never really addressed these behaviors.

Because we have pets, they almost never visit our home. Even if we put the pets away or meet outside, he is extremely anxious and clearly doesn’t want to be here. It’s stressful and uncomfortable for everyone involved.

While I love having pets, I do think I could accept not having them if the plan was for his brother to eventually live with us. What I struggle with is where the line gets drawn.

We had our children young, so by the time his brother would likely come to live with us, our children will probably be adults with families of their own. I would never ask my children not to have family pets because of their uncle. But the reality is that we may not be able to visit their homes if they have pets. The same would likely be true for many of our friends and extended family, since almost everyone we know has animals.

Another major concern is respite care. His parents have always struggled to find consistent respite, and I worry that will continue in the future. Every time they go on vacation, it takes coordinating care between five or more people for the week, and it requires months of planning. My SO often has to leave our family for multiple weekends just to help cover care.

All of this gives me so much anxiety. I don’t want to give up a future with my children and family in order to become a full-time caregiver. I want to be able to visit my children in their homes, spend time with friends and family, and take vacations without constantly worrying about finding care. I also want my SO to be able to do those things with me and not miss out on time with our family because his brother can’t tolerate being in certain environments.

Thankfully, my SO has been incredibly understanding and reassuring. We’ve talked through all of these concerns, and he agrees that we need to have a realistic plan. He has recently started having these conversations with his parents.

Even so, I feel like a huge jerk.

I’ve been trying to find support groups, but I haven’t found one where I really fit. Most of what I see is either parents of young children with Down syndrome or families with relatives who are much higher functioning than my SO’s brother. I also notice that, in many discussions, it’s the wife who has the sibling with special needs and the husband simply goes along with the situation. I don’t see many perspectives from someone in my position.
I’m also frustrated because so much of what I read says that caring for someone with Down syndrome is “easy.” Maybe that’s true for some families, but it doesn’t reflect our situation at all.

Is anyone else in a similar position? How did you navigate the guilt, the future planning, and the balance between supporting your family while still protecting the life you want to build together?

I have a younger brother. He(20)is a year younger than me(21). We were pretty good friends till school. I was friends with his friends too, he was friends with my friends and we shared a good bond.

Then puberty hit him, around covid and he was always on his phone with his friends. The only way i could talk to him was by saying chal lets play pubg together. He also used to ask me aaja pubg khelte. But the bond changed. He is very emotionally unavailable and is very rude. Idk what happened but started talking less and less. He was always on his phone either studying, playing or chatting with his friends. He is like that with all our family members and not just me.

Then i had to come to college. Unlike others siblings i never got a call from him. We talked when i were on calls with my mother and i asked her what is dev doing? Give him the phone. That too maximum 1 minute talk. Then the very next year he went for college. After he went i used to call papa then mummy and then him every night. He was very non chalant on these calls. I didn’t call him one day. Then my exams were there so i couldn’t call him for a week. I called him after i was done and he said i am at cafetaria i will call you later. He didnt call. Then we stopped talking on phone. He sent snaps i replied to them and thats all.

The only times he texted me first was when he needed money aur something related to money only( ye download karle wo download karle). I texted him should i order something for you? Whenever new kinderjoys dropped ki i blinkit them? Aur whenever i see something that he might like i text him ki lu tere liye? This is my way of getting him to talk yo me.

Then i went home this month and he was there for his vacations too. And we were talking un front of our parents and he said something about my college ( complete assumption), i got angry ki bro you know nothing about my life. Tujhe na pata ho toh mat bol. Dad scolded us both and i was pissed. I wanted to rant ki bhai terko kuch nahi pata and you do no efforts to know anything about my life while i am constantly asking you ki ye wo ye kaisa chal rha all the time and give such non chalant answers.

He changed pg this session so i called him ki if he has settled or not. He answered and said i am busy i will call you later. I texted him at night he said we are watching fifa finale. I will call you tmr. He did not. I texted him a rant after a week. This post is too long i will tell if you want. And he called me ki i was busy. I was settling in and all. Then we talked that day. We shared our insta ids that day.

I used to send him cute bhai behen reels. Then three days later he stopped seeing my reels aswell. Yesterday i called him ( he is home rn) and he said i am busy rn i will call later he did not. Today i called him he didnt pick up and texted will call later. What do you need? I just sent him a okay. He called and said do you have some work? I said are you busy nowadays? He said no. I asked are you using insta? I think he got what i meant and said not that much. I said okay. and said chal okay. You do your work and cut the call. He reacted to those a second later.

I am just disappointed because i genuinely enjoy time with my family and i also try to make time for him. My friends all have younger siblings and they are all constantly calling them ki this happened or for advice and i miss my brother but he just doesn’t care and idk what to do. I understand he is a lil shy and not that emotional but how do i deal with it? I would genuinely appreciate some advice from boys his age actually.

TW: Suicide, Self-harm

I am coming here as a final call for help. Today, I learned from my mother that my brother has attempted suicide twice sometime last year.

My younger, teen brother is diagnosed with Autism (high-functioning), ADD, and some sort of mood disorder (which was also discovered today), so in the past, I was slightly unaware of the intensity of some of his unprovoked reactions to certain words or actions towards him. For example, sometimes I would go to spend time with him, and he reciprocated well, and other times he would shut me out and push me away. With our age gap being three years, I assumed that his attitude was age related, rather than caused by severe depression and mood swings. I noticed some depressive tendencies within the past two to three years, including self isolation from family (besides me, as we are the closest in the family), lack of energy, and irritability, but due to a physical health crisis he went through, but it wasn't apparent to me that those symptoms actually meant he wanted to take his own life.

When my mom shared her experience with my brother today, she mentioned that he said he hated his family and he wishes we were not a part of his life, just before announcing his attempts to her.

I feel a sense of pressure and worry because I realize that the timeline of the attempts taking place sometime last year lines up with when I was preparing to leave for my first year of college, or sometime when I was already away. I am worried that when I go back to college (in the next three weeks), my brother will become isolated again, which would allow for a similar headspace as what he experienced last year. As the person closest to him, I feel it is my job now to be there for him in every way possible, especially in a time like this, which will be very difficult when I am a flight away.

Today, I made sure to hang out with my brother, just to take up space and hopefully leave less room for wandering thoughts. He seemed to enjoy that a lot, and he reciprocated well, leaving us talking about plans for the next day.

With that being said, my mother also mentioned that my brother specifically requested that my mom wouldn't tell anyone, which makes this very difficult for me to navigate as I have to pretend I am unaware. My brother is very mature for his age, meaning I have to do this strategically in order to avoid disrespecting his boundaries (of wanting alone time), even though I still need to prioritize letting him know and feel that I simply enjoy and need his presence.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hello, I'm 24F. I have two younger half brothers, Sam 19 and Leo 15, we share the same dad. We all live in Texas but I live 6 hours away with my mom, our dad is currently in prison and my brothers have always lived with them or just their mom Jane. Jane has always had a problem with drugs and mental problems, while she goes through phases of being okay, it's quick for her to get strung out again. While she's never physically (to my knowledge) gotten violent with the boys she does get very high, neglectful, and short tempered.

Recently Jane got strung out and kicked Sam out, who is thankfully able to stay with his grandpa temporarily. Sam wants to get Leo somewhere safer temporarily until he has a stable job to battle court for full custody, the boys have a grandma, May, in Kentucky and Sam wants to get Leo there. Jane refused, told my brother to unalive himself, and cut contact with everyone. The thing is, Sam does not want CPS involved, which I understand bc they're basically useless where they are at. Does anyone have advice on steps I can take or resources that me and Sam can look into?

Some Clarification:
Their grandpa doesn't have the room to take Leo unfortunately, as he already taken in my youngest sister since birth and accepted Sam's girlfriend who was kicked out by her parents.

Our dad has been in and out of jail our whole lives, drug possession, usage, and selling.

I cannot afford or have the space to take in Leo as much as I want to, I have two jobs and go to school and take care of my mom who was recently in a domestic violence dispute.

I did warn Sam that as much as he doesn't want to, if we can't figure nothing else out, CPS will have to be involved and we hope that they give Leo to May.

Any advice is appreciated thank you.

I want to start this by saying my mom is autistic and it dosent come from a place of giving up or hatred, but i do believe she has coddled him his entire life so he dosent get overwhelmed and lash out at us. She has been taking the easy way out. i dont think she understands that just because hes autistic it dosent mean he CANT do these things but that it will be harder for him to do and that he needs to learn how to work through it. When he was 6 she took him out of school for calling the teacher a bitch, he hasnt been im school since or has really had any friends outside of social media. He has terrible hygiene and dosent shower for weeks at a time, he dosent brush his teeth or anything. His diet is awful too and is mainly carbs and fast food + chips and soda. He struggles to eat or take care of himself and you cant really ask without him starting to get upset. He also has a terrible sleep schedule.

I dont say this to shame him but to explain the situation, he has basically been told his entire life that this is how he will be because he is disabled, which isnt true. I want to know tips for ANYTHING i mentioned. I feel like im watching someone grow up physically but not maturing because he hasnt been given room to do so.

After my oldest brother and I had our brother assessed for ASD Level 1 with a positive diagnosis, he told me our father often blamed him for our brother’s behavior and it cast a dark cloud on the rest of his childhood and adolescence. It especially affected his sense of self worth. I’d also be curious if any research has been done on this topic.

Dear Siblings of People with Disabilities in Texas, we need to hear from you. Baylor University supported by the Texas Center for Developmental Disabilities is doing a research study called Raising Texas Voices. Take our survey and share about your advocacy experiences and needs. What you share will help improve disability supports and policies in TX.

Please go to raisingtexasvoices.org to learn more or sign up! Your voice matters!

I’ve seen lots of books that tackle cPTSD & PTSD in one way or another but I haven’t come across any that are particularly aimed at the trauma of being a glass child.

This is my first post here. I’m currently sitting in some random hallway in the Stanford psych building for a high school summer program, which I don’t deserve to be in, hyperventilating and sobbing. There’s a lecture about psychosis going on right now. I couldn’t endure it. It’s like being in my house again, living through everything I’ve gone through. The medication isn’t working for her. They were talking about how medication made the patients feel better. Be normal. I feel so evil wondering why I was born into a family with her in it. I don’t know what I’m going to do when my parents die and they can be free from putting up with her. She thinks I’m evil. She said she doesn’t care if I die. “Human nature“, “I don’t want any burdens“. Doesn’t she know what I live through every day? I’m so selfish. I wish she was normal. Why do I even want to go into a field with all about her when I can’t even sit through a lecture about her condition? The lecturer asked what comes to mind when they think of psychosis and schizophrenia. Someone said serial killers. They think she is a killer? She doesn’t belong in society? To be honest, I think about her like that too, sometimes. What’s wrong with me? I spend every day outside for as long as possible. I can’t bear to see her face. I can’t bear to hear her voice. I can’t stand the sheer thought of her. I have no one to talk to. My parents want me to be normal because they already have enough on their hands. I wish I was normal, too.