I'm new to this community forum but I thought it would be extremely beneficial for me. I'm Rachael and I have a twin sister (18 years this august) and she is finally following the beautiful path to recovery for many of her mental illnesses. My sister Madeline has been placed with the burden of (in order as early as 14 years old) Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Anxiety, OCD and the personally worst of all, an eating disorder - Anorexia. During these many years, my twin sister has suffered through these mental illnesses, that are sadly becoming more and more prevalent amongst the youth of Australian society. It has affected her and her family in immensely terrible ways as I'm sure many of you too experience. However, despite the scarring, the violence, the deadly weight loss, the tears and the loss of hope, my twin sister found hope in many ways, predominantly through family support, and according to her own words, "my sibling and friends". It has become familiar to me that through this experience that family going through the illnesses of the suffer in a patient, but passionate and dedicating way will encourage and simplify their path to recovery. It definitely was not a quick path, but after 2 -3 years of my high-achieving sister staying out of hospital, wanting to be perfect, she recovered and now is at a healthy weight, back at school doing year 11 over two years, and is making new friends. She still has anxiety and depression, but the mere fact that she has gone through the hard yards of going to Eating Disorder clinics, hospitals with nasal gastric tubes etc, proved to herself that she was missing out on her teenage hood. To me, it seems it is eye-openers and realisations that powerfully helps a person suffering an illness to recover. I finish year 12 at the end of this year and my goal is to do a bachelor in psychological science and obtain a career helping the youth/adolescents like my twin sister who are suffering. I wish all the parents/families/individuals out there to stay strong and look towards that pathway to recovery.
- Rachael B
