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Natalia

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Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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  • in reply to: Struggling #426397
    Natalia
    Participant

    I wish you all the best and I also hope to be able to work on myself and reach peace and relaxation

    in reply to: Weighed down… #426396
    Natalia
    Participant

    Hi Roberta,

    Thank you for the nice message.

    Honestly, I don’t feel brave or compassionate at all. It’s just something I feel I have no choice in doing and I don’t even know when my dad will finally stop making excuses and actually move.

    I don’t know about his drinking habits now as I haven’t seen him in almost 5 years, we talk on the phone every week but alcoholism is easy to hide. I used to work in a bar and I collect many nice expensive liquors for special occasions, some have never even been opened yet. I’m not much of a drinker.
    Anyways, my dad has suffered from heart disease mostly due high cholesterol and he had a quadruple  bypass so every valve in his heart had to be replaced. Most of his health problems are heart related as far as I know.

    Sometimes I wonder if his mental health is getting worse as well. He’s just not been making the most rational decisions this past year.

    This has been one of the most difficult Christmas times for me , just waiting in limbo not knowing what to do. I have a room ready for him what more can I do? I don’t have the luxury of any paid time off work and I can’t afford not to work.

    in reply to: Weighed down… #426364
    Natalia
    Participant

    Merry Christmas everyone!

    Anita, thank you so much for allowing me to express myself on this platform.

    My psychiatrist is on an extended Christmas vacation , she never tells me and my appointments just get cancelled instead of being able to rebook . It’s frustrating because her secretary books the appointments and doesn’t check.

    anyways typical stuff that I usually dread around Christmas is already happening. My mom decided to book a trip without telling anyone and invited herself to my brothers house . Basically , she send him a text message just as she landed to come pick her up from the airport. Him and his wife have 3 year old , my nephew but they had to drop everything to cater to my moms whims !

    im so upset , she’s probably going to do this to me next ! Just show up unannounced and expect everyone to drop their daily routine. She is vegetarian and eats some weird religious Hindu diet and expect everyone else to eat that when she visits . Also she on a whim to a vow of silence and it following some other religion or yoga stuff . I don’t understand why she she pretty much thinks she owns me and my brother and our homes , she even shows up at our work unannounced.

    so I’m on pins and needles because I still have to work during the holidays and the last thing I need is my mom showing up and telling me what to do and eat or to quit my job.

    im also on the hook to help my dad and will need to help him move in with us as he is losing his rental place a lot sooner and has no where else he can afford to live .
    I need to find out some resources here because I’ve never taken care of a sick older person before, don’t know what do expect, I’m sick with worry and actually have been having many bad thoughts lately about giving up for good

    in reply to: Weighed down… #426236
    Natalia
    Participant

    Wow we sure do have a lot in common.

    I wonder why I never met anyone here with a similar situation, most of my friends parents are still married, and my friends still live with their parents even past their 30s, I moved out as soon as I could , I think I was 18 when I did.
    I couldn’t wait to live away from my parents .

    Well, not sure where to go from here really. I do see a psychiatrist but they don’t really go deeply into any kind of talk therapy. It’s mostly medication. I guess it’s still something. Therapy is expensive. They told me I have PTSD and to keep taking my meds.

    I just wish that some day I could feel “normal” again or worthy of something. I wish I could feel hopeful and safe and to be able to relax at night. What do you do when all you feel is depression, especially around Christmas time ?

    in reply to: Weighed down… #426195
    Natalia
    Participant

    Ps. I also feel hyper vigilant and worried all the time , like I’m just trying to survive and any comforts that I enjoy now could be taken away from me at any moment if I don’t do the right things .

    in reply to: Weighed down… #426194
    Natalia
    Participant

    Hi Anita,

    thank you so much for writing back .

    Almost everything you wrote resonated with me deeply , especially the “parentification” I’ve never heard that term used before and I really want to find out more about it because I think it could relate a lot to my childhood trauma.

    ive actually disassociated or blocked out a lot of the memories from my childhood but they keep coming back in my dreams sometimes . I’ve also felt like I don’t matter a lot, like when my parents used to fight ( usually caused by my dad’s drinking and coming home late ) I used to fantasize about running away from home or meeting a rich prince to sweep me off my feet so I wouldn’t have to deal with family problems anymore.

    My mom disappeared for two years while I was growing up , so that’s how I ended up taking care of my brother and I guess my dad in a way. We grew up in an Eastern European country during communism and I later learned my mom defected. For 2 years I had almost no contact with her and believed she abandoned everything and everyone .
    Then we were reunited in Canada and my life once again got turned upside down, this time trying to look after my mom who went through some kind of personal hell with the whole immigration process and was never quite the same person, she seemed detached and indifferent about me. She talked about being in a refugee camp and not having enough food and seeing people get murdered and I felt really bad for her that she had to make such “sacrifices” just to bring us to Canada .

    And so I always feel like I’m not enough , not brave enough, not grateful enough. I didn’t know about PTSD back then, she probably needed help with that. I always just thought I was a bad apple of the family and that’s why she’s so distant and sad all the time or else bursting out with anger at me over everything. Like walking on eggshells.

    sorry I’m going on about my childhood now , just trying to make a connection as to how to deal with all this now as an adult . Because in all honesty I feel like I’m still 10 years old and trying to make sense of everything.

    i never had children of my own because I was always too scared that I wouldn’t know how to raise them right , that I would end up just as neglectful and emotionally unavailable as my mom.

    also , I was never close to my dad, growing up he scared me , he was an abusive drunk . Now I just feel sorry for him and feel the need to help him somehow .

    sorry this is so long and thank you to anyone who has any input.

    natalia

     

    in reply to: Weighed down… #426162
    Natalia
    Participant

    Hi,

    this is my very first post and I’m not sure where to post it but my problem seems to be very similar to what Rosie and Anita described here.

    Since a very young age I’ve felt like I had to look after my younger brother and my parents instead of them looking after us children.

    I remember saving every penny in my piggy bank and getting a babysitting job at 12 just to help out and my dad was an alcoholic and my mom was busy studying for her pharmacist exam and wasn’t really “present”.

    Fast forward about 30 years and my parents are now long divorced , my dad lives on bare minimum, has numerous health issues and can barely afford rent in his tiny apartment.
    ive offered to help many times, I asked him to move in with me and my husband, we have a big house and lots of room. Back when I had a good job I offered to pay a down payment on a condo for him so at least he wouldn’t be paying so much in rent . He’s been renting the same place over 30 years now and it’s going downhill , the landlord is a slumlord who doesn’t turn on heat in winter and there are bugs in the building .

    it makes me so sad that my dad is so stubborn and wants to live that way . I’m in another province but still I would pay for his plane tickets to at least come visit and stay in a nice clean house for a while .

    how can I deal with this situation ?
    I don’t have a good job anymore but it’s still decent but I can’t afford to go to visit him ( because I would literally have to stay at a hotel , I’m very scared of bugs, rats  and the people that live in his building ).

    I wish he would just wake up one day and realize it makes no sense what he’s doing .he could live so much better .

     

    natalia

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)