My sister is recently having some mental health issues which we were already concerned about, however that concern has increased in the last few days as she now is under the impression that we’d all prefer if she was not around. We have previously intervened her mental health problems with professionals, however she now does not want to interact with any hence my post on support methods.
In the last month or so she’s had some very worrying episodes which has led my mother (whom she lives with) to take her to urgent mental health care. She has become extremely aggressive and paranoid.
She was on the path for a mental health plan and to see a psychologist, however she’s since changed her mind and now no longer wants to do so.
For a bit of background, I live an hour away and am the older sister/“other” parent, my parents have been divorced for quite a while, she lives with my mother and my father lives overseas. I try to assist my mother as best as I can with all of this as my father isn’t around, and we have just asked for my father to come back home to support her.
All of us understand that we cannot ‘force’ her to see a mental health professional and don’t believe it would be of any help anyway if we tried to as she wouldn’t be receptive to the help if we did.
We’re all looking for a way to support and help her whilst also understanding we can’t assist her if she does not want to receive that care, she has to be willing.
My main concern now, is that she believes we’d all be much happier if she wasn’t around which is not the case, we all love her deeply and for at least myself she knows and has heard me refer to her as “my first baby” many times because of the care roles in our family lives.
She has often compared herself to me and continues to do so both from a life perspective and her relationship with our parents vs mine. I will note we have very different personalities but both our parents cater towards our needs in the way it suits our personalities best, especially my mother.
I am trying my best to let my parents look after the situation, however I know she needs me too and many times she’s said she want to feel “normal” so I have tried to take on that role for normality for her while my parents take that caregiver role, however her mental health is getting exceedingly worse. From both her mood, demeanour and her weight (she has lost a considerable amount to the point that from looks alone, she looks underweight). We are all exceedingly worried and we’ve told her not only that, but that we love her and we care for her and we want to help her.
I am struggling in terms of how to help her, I have done an extreme amount of research and I’m now just at the point where I am hoping someone has been through this before and can offer advice.
A bit of a side note, her mood and thoughts from a child to now, she’s always thought someone was against her (whether it be a person or conversation) and there has been multiple times she’s used someone else’s very sad story and made it about her own life and gets very upset when she’s called out on it. Also, as of the last 6 months, she’s been ‘making up’ stories about events (the actual event itself happened like a birthday party but the situation she is saying happened, never happened) and putting people that were there at these events in these supposed situations, and then getting upset when we confirmed they did not actually happen. Unsure if she’s lying or if she’s getting very confused. I’m not sure why she does it, and I’m not looking for a label or an answer, however maybe an explanation or assistance in helping her.
We would all very much appreciate any advice at all, we’re just a bit lost for options to assist her at the moment.
