My Story: Anonymous Member 5

In my 24 years, I have witnessed firsthand how mental health struggles can debilitate one’s life. For me, most of my story illustrates how mental health and addiction have the ability to completely crush someone, while simultaneously reverberating its devastating effects to those around that person. The story does not have an ending because the battle with mental health struggles is an ongoing journey that some people must navigate day by day. Rather, the story sheds light on the ways in which mental health education plays a pivotal role in the type of love and support one can provide to those suffering.

My brother and I are one year apart, so growing up, we were very close. We were given the same opportunities and tools to succeed. We went to the same middle school and both graduated with high honors; we were fortunate enough to attend prestigious high schools and graduate at the top of our classes.

Once I left for college, I was beginning to see a change in my brother. In his senior year of high school, he began skipping practice and rebelling against my parents’ rules, despite their good intentions. Sure, teenagers exude a fair amount of rebellion at times, but my brother’s change in behavior was sudden and unexpected. He still managed to graduate high school with stellar grades, but his college career was much rockier and unpredictable.

I will not go into details because my brother’s struggles are not mine to share with the world. He can share his story with whomever he wishes once he is ready. I will, however, depict the ways in which I felt and dealt with watching my brother become a victim of mental health issues.

While away at school, I felt helpless. I knew my parents were doing everything in their power to provide him with guidance and support, but that was not enough and he continued to spiral. Multiple times I tried reaching out to my brother, in a seemingly futile attempt to rekindle the sibling relationship we had when we were younger. Nothing seemed to work, and as his college career progressed, his mental health struggles emanated from addiction and substance abuse.

I was frustrated. Why couldn’t he see how much damage he was doing to our family? Why couldn’t he just wake up the next day and be “normal”? A dark cloud hung over my parents and me. We felt we had failed my brother, and it seemed as if everything we did to help him was a vain effort at returning to the way things used to be.

As time continued, I educated myself on mental health to grasp a better understanding of my brother’s struggles. A good analogy that has resonated with me and grounds me when I get upset with my brother is that a broken leg needs time to heal, just as mental illness needs to be nurtured back to good health. This knowledge brought a new light to the way in which I was showing my love and support to my brother. Similarly, my parents began to attend weekly meetings with other parents of children with mental illness. This network of support has opened their eyes to a new perspective on how to reach out to him in the most loving and caring ways.

I still fear that my brother will experience relapses while he battles his mental illness, but I am also hopeful that my family and I have been equipped with the right tools and knowledge to provide my brother with the strength to get through his struggles. Despite my fears, watching my brother endure the trials and tribulations of mental health has made me more aware of the power that education holds to enlighten people’s perceptions of mental illness. His story has made me an advocate for those battling mental struggles, as I am more apt to see life from his perspective when his behavior deviates from his regular self. It really does pay to “Learn 2 Listen” because everyone has their own story or knows someone with their own story; we can learn from each other and use that knowledge to better ourselves and help those around us.