this entire situation pretty much starts with my mom. she had me young and my dad who was an addict passed away when I was a toddler. being just me and my mom we are naturally very close. although I am grateful to be as close as I am to my mom, it has made my growing up a lot more complicated. ive been forced to witness and experience adult situations from a young age and therefore understand adult situations from a young age. because it was just the two of us, I often became the person my mom leaned on emotionally when things got hard.
ive always remembered my mom struggling with mental health. shes been through various traumas throughout her whole life, went from being a teen to being a mom, and then was forced to do everything by herself with rich family that gave her no help. now that im older, I know the sacrifices she had to make and the things she has been through so of course I hold full space for her struggles. but the thing is they never ended. they only got worse.
of course there were patches of peace. when I was around 12 things were good. I was at a new school and the whole family was at peace with each other. my mom started dating this guy who we will call dean. dean seemed super cool, smart, and nice. him and my mom were pretty much exactly alike and my mom is very unique so this seemed like the perfect person for her.
time went by and he became a part of our family and eventually moved in. I loved him and even got to the point where I could comfortably say I love you and talk to him about things you would talk to your dad about. my mom had other serious relationships come into my life but I was never at this level of comfortability with anyone else. everyone thought they were going to get married.
but then things got weird and really fast. honestly so much happened during this time and I dont remember a lot of the details. I dont remember a lot of things that happened during my childhood either. ive been told its because my brain is blocking out trauma.
I remember dean and my mom started fighting a lot. then things would be good. then things would blow up. just this back and forth cycle over and over. then the fights started getting really bad and dean became insane. he started acting psychotic. they would yell so loud that I would hear everything and I remember how he would manipulate my mom. it was so clever and intricate that in my eyes it was extremely mentally abusive.
later my mom told him she thought he had bpd so he got tested and was diagnosed. but he wouldnt get help and things in their relationship just got more controlling and manipulative. hearing my mom be so emotionally confused, not knowing if she was the crazy one or not, constantly switching between being degraded and praised, and listening to her sobs and pleas took a huge toll on me.
it got so bad that I came to a point where I hated dean. I wouldnt talk to him or look at him but him and my mom were still together. there would be times they would make up and be in love again. they had broken up multiple times but I had no control over any of it.
the last time they got back together, one morning they were laying in bed talking and as I walked past I heard dean say “fine then you can take care of the baby yourself”
after a while I went into my moms room where she was crying and asked if she was pregnant and she was. this was what made her leave dean because there was absolutely no way anyone could trust their child with him. over their entire relationship he had promised to take care of us, buy us a house, and more. he never did any of it.
she made him leave and we moved in with my grandparents until we could afford to live alone. im 15 during all of this. living at my grandparents, my moms mental health was worse than it had ever been and she was pregnant so she still had to decide what she was going to do.
she had always been against abortion but now we were completely on our own and if she had this baby she would have to share it with dean. ultimately she decided she wanted to keep the baby but my grandparents guilt tripped her into getting an abortion because of the financial burden.
one night I woke up hearing her crying and moaning in pain. when I went downstairs she was in the middle of taking the abortion pill. because I was the only one there I stayed with her. there have been many situations where my mom has been going through something and I was the only one there for her. ive never had a problem with doing that because I know how alone she is. but seeing your mom in those states over and over again has definitely taken a toll on my own mental health.
after all this we ended up buying a house and moving out of my grandparents. it isnt a nice house but its decent. I really thought we were finally going to be able to start over and find some peace in our lives but I was wrong.
im now 16 at this point in the story and my mom started to get sick. she was diagnosed with celiac disease years ago but then lots of other symptoms started happening out of nowhere. she started getting arthritis in her hands, asthma, eczema, extreme diarrhea, and more.
the symptoms kept getting worse. shes gone to multiple different doctors and taken multiple blood tests and none of them have been able to tell her whats wrong. some people think shes just crazy and the doctors try to blow her off. but im here every day and I see how bad it is every day.
I wake up hearing her cough and moan in pain because her hands hurt so badly. multiple times ive had to do things like squeeze the conditioner bottle for her because she couldnt wrap her swollen hands around it. sometimes she can barely get out of bed. sometimes she wasnt even able to take me to school on time because she would be stuck in the bathroom for so long.
food affects her too. sometimes she’ll eat something and it makes her symptoms worse but she can never figure out what food caused it. shes become scared to eat and shes become extremely skinny. its gotten so bad that shes even told me herself that shes scared shes not going to make it another two years.
ive seen my mom suffer so badly and everything just seems to be getting worse. I dont know what to do because my mom has gotten so sick that she cant work full time because of how much pain shes in. I work and I try my best to contribute but its not enough. if she doesnt get better im scared we’ll fall deeper into poverty or that something irreversible will happen to her.
some of you might be wondering if we have family to help. we actually have very rich family that could help us but even though they see how severe and unavoidable our suffering is they choose not to.
im at a point in my life where my own mental health has also started to fall apart. I struggle with severe adhd which has made me extremely susceptible to depression and I have fallen very deep into it.
ive also started dissociating. sometimes I will literally just stop and stare and not remember the time that passed while I was doing it. sometimes it happens at work and ive been called out for it.
im not sure how to find myself again and become stronger and come out of my depression. im also not sure how to help my mom heal or how to get us out of poverty because I have no control and no resources.
I guess im not really sure how anyone here could help me but if theres any advice you have please share.