How do I tell my older brother?

[guitarguy]

For i while i had this friend. He was abused by his uncle. Now, he said that HIS older brother couldnt know, because if he DID, his brother would actually kill the uncle.

This has really spooked me. To be honest, I dont really know my brother, I lived with him growing up, but he always beat me up, over stupid childish things. I know he got into a few bar-fights in his highschool and college days, but does this mean he will do something violent? I love my brother, and I dont want him to do anything to jeopordize his future.

When the repressed memories came about, I lost my mind, literally. I became delusional, thinking that since my parents sent me to this babysitter, they were involved and they drugged me so i wouldnt remember etc...every man i ever respected was involved(in my head). I was in the hospital, and i told my mom to come to town, I thought i was saving her and my younger brother from an abusive husband and father. I was released, then i went back in a month later. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia.(a diagnosis which is still up in the air)

When i got out again, I told my younger bro, and my parents what had happened to me as a kid. My dad and bro reacted with denial, just turning thier heads silently, or changing the subject.

My older brother acted the same way when I told him I was schizophrenic. How the hell is he going to react if I tell him WHY I lost my mind.

It seems like my personal life has become taboo since i was hospitalised. Excluding my aging Catholic grandmother, my entire family is tip-toeing around me these days. I dont know what to do.

If you can make any sense of this, please help.

 

[medicb4]

There are a few differernt issues that you might consider, or not.

1) Telling is for YOU
2) How the people you tell deal with the information is beyond your control
3) You may be over reading the possible response
4) IF violence is a distinct possibility then CALL THE POLICE.

Scott

 

[Dan88]

If you want to tell him, you may want to write down what you have to say and stress to him the harm it would do to you if he took action on your behalf and that your not telling him so that he will do anything just that you need to stop hiding it.

Remember, with whatever you choose to do, do it because it's best for you.

Dan

 

[SAR]

I'm sorry that your family is tip-toeing around you. Some people in my life did the same thing, no matter how pissed off I got or how many times I calmly asked them to relax, and it didn't really stop until they felt reassured that I was going to be okay-- not just stable, but really okay.

It's not so much that they wanted me to be back to the normal that I was, but they loved me and wanted me to have a sense of what my own personal "normal" looked like, and be able to achieve it.

It was unfair, I found it impossible to stabilize myself when there was chaos and trauma around me-- none of which was my fault, none of which was under my control. In a way, my instability wasn't about me-- I wasn't sick-- I was a mirror of a sick, unstable situation, and looking at me made my family uncomfortable.

I hope you can use that to make some sense out of what is going on with your family.