This is a bit of history of why we've gt to the stage we are now.
When I was a little girl growing up in Northern Ireland, I thought my family was normal. Both my parents worked and we had a loving extended family around us. Mum was a teacher and I have some really happy memories of that time. Sure every weekend she took a migraine and stayed in a darkened room all Saturday and I have one memory of an extended stay at the "hospital" but that was it
Dad was the one with the problem. He had anger management issues then but has learned over the years to control them. Mum was the normal one.
When I was none the whole family moved to Scotland for my Dad's work. Mum became a stay at home parent and everything seemed fine. I guess as a child its sometimes easy to block things. My parents got divorced a couple of years later and thats when it really started. I'm sure my sisters would correct me on this as they both have better recollections.
When mum had to go out to work and support us the "depression" reared its head and she would spend days at a time just lying in bed not coping. She also began to read our mail and try and find out our secrets. we took over a lot of the housework but just carried on. My elder sister left to go to uni and then it spirialed.
I remember getting my exam results and having to wedge myself in the hall with my back to the door so she wouldn't see them first. My twin did the same in the bathroom. She started to tell stories about things that happened to us as if they were her story. She couldn't keep a secret, even when asked and tried to be our friend rather than our mother, and kept walking in on us in the bathroom
One critical point was when my Grandfather on my Dad's side was diagnosed with lung cancer. I found out from hearing her tell my twin. How she told her was by opening the locked bathroom door from the outside, you could do this with a nail file, and walking in on her in the bathroom.
When we were 17 the twin and i both went to the same uni and moved into halls. This was the point when things began to dissend into darkness. She had been over to Ireland visiting family and planned to stop at ours on the way back. She turned up with the man who would later become her eegit husband. She spent the whole time talking about her and him, how romantic he was, how good their life was etc. Hi daughters, here is a man i have never told you about who is my boyfriend - Surprise. i think it was our birthday as well.
When she married the eegit, soon after she made it clear that we would not be welcome, even though we had nothing about disusading her but supported her fully.
Another birthday soon after (21st I think), mum asked if we wanted a party to celebrate. We said no, because we would celebrate at Uni. However she decided that we would have a party and invited all her friends. She proceeded to hold court in the front room about her life, how awful it was, with all her friends reassuring her. While the birthday girls and their big sister, got quitely drunk in the kitchen. Who's day was it?
And then there was Christmas. Mum has always played favourites with us. She says she loves us all equally but quite honestly that depends on what day of the week it is. That Christmas of my first or second year at Uni, i was clearly out of favour. The twin got a matched luggage set and iIgot a black bin bag full of second hand gypsy skirts. But she had spent the same on us apparently.
However, it was really when she started having problems with the eegit husband that her manic side really came through and that was when she was offically diagnosed as bi polar
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