Hi there chamomiletea
Welcome to Beyond Blue and thank you for providing your post.
Oh wow, this is a very tough situation.
So it sounds not only like you are supporting him with his illness, but also appear to be supporting him financially as well. And on top of this, you’ve got uni happening on top of you going out to work as well. Top that off with your own anxiety problems and it’s no wonder you are feel the stress and strain of it all.
Even when someone has their own illnesses, a relationship should still be a two-way street. Yours doesn’t sound very much like this at all.
Your end part of your message wished to receive messages of advice and hope, so I’ll do my best to angle my response along those lines. But it would be so easy to take the other option here, the one that is standing out for how the situation seems.
So positives.
I would be strongly encouraging him to get back to either his gp, OR his psychologist; but on this occasion, perhaps you could be included to go along with him. A kind of joint approach – so you can be there to help him through this (and to keep things on a truthful path) – but I wouldn’t be telling him that part, as he might baulk at you going if you said something along those lines. But you could say, that because of your own anxiety issues, it might be a good thing if “we” were to “both” go along. Obviously, you’d need to check with who it was you were seeing to make sure they do double appointments?
This way you could also be there for him and to see if they could possibly prescribe him any medication that might help to assist with his illness?
At these times, it might be something worthwhile to bring up his drinking as well – as in getting the drunk stage is not helpful for anyone battling a mental illness.
I hope I’ve said something that might be helpful and would love to hear back from you.
Neil
