Hi,
I was involved in caring for a younger sibling with schizophrenia/schizo-affective disorder along with the rest of my family. Her illness lasted six years before she died suddenly and tragically. During that time I had taken a year out to move back home with my parents and look after her while they were at work as they were utterly exhausted (and in the meantime my mother was involved in caring for her sister who passed away due to cancer).
It has been five years since my sister died and I have grieved as well as can be expected. However, I have had more difficulties with the way that I think and I would like to know whether there are other people who found this?
In this case I was using CBT techniques and other anxiety reduction tricks and I read a lot at the time about mental health and illnesses, now I can't seem to assess "normal" life without putting it through the mental health prism.
The concepts of "Healthy and normal" don't seem to exist. One of my friends pointed out that all the words I use to describe emotional/psychological states are almost pathological, someone isn't "very happy" they are "manic", they aren't "sad" they are "depressed". If I am not calm and reasonably even keeled I must be ill.
I would like to know whether other people have had difficulties with this. I understand from Reading other posts that some people feel a loss of identity when they lose their role as a carer and other people who find it hard to stop caring for people around them.
I hope this makes sense.
I was involved in caring for a younger sibling with schizophrenia/schizo-affective disorder along with the rest of my family. Her illness lasted six years before she died suddenly and tragically. During that time I had taken a year out to move back home with my parents and look after her while they were at work as they were utterly exhausted (and in the meantime my mother was involved in caring for her sister who passed away due to cancer).
It has been five years since my sister died and I have grieved as well as can be expected. However, I have had more difficulties with the way that I think and I would like to know whether there are other people who found this?
In this case I was using CBT techniques and other anxiety reduction tricks and I read a lot at the time about mental health and illnesses, now I can't seem to assess "normal" life without putting it through the mental health prism.
The concepts of "Healthy and normal" don't seem to exist. One of my friends pointed out that all the words I use to describe emotional/psychological states are almost pathological, someone isn't "very happy" they are "manic", they aren't "sad" they are "depressed". If I am not calm and reasonably even keeled I must be ill.
I would like to know whether other people have had difficulties with this. I understand from Reading other posts that some people feel a loss of identity when they lose their role as a carer and other people who find it hard to stop caring for people around them.
I hope this makes sense.