Family trouble

starbuck
starbuck Online Community Member Posts: 206 Empowering

I guess this belongs in this category as it pertains to my mental health problems but it's also a wider family problem.

I got into a discussion with my kids online (half of them live elsewhere, half at home) and they complained that I was off my meds. This is because one of the kids at home saw me measuring out my prozac the other night as I'm using the '10% of last dose' method to reduce my dosage.

I came off prozac a few years ago following the gp's instructions. I was off within a couple of months and then followed two years of horrendous mental health problems - sheer panic, anxiety, a return of my worst ocd symptoms and now I know looking back that I was also going through menopause. I was a wreck for those two years and I never want to go through that again or put my family through something like that, hence the very slow taper now.

I asked my 29 year old last night to please not discuss my medication with their siblings as it's private. They said they didn't want me ending up like I was before (which I can fully understand) and then went mad at me telling me how I used them as my private therapist throughout that time, constantly seeking reassurance for my ocd and intrusive thoughts and that I shouldn't have done that to my child. I know all that and I have apologised for what happened but they are adamant I never sought help elsehwere when I tried. Six years later I still haven't received any cbt or help for my ocd and I paid for private counselling to try to help (it didn't).

They told me I screwed up their life and that of their siblings with my mental health problems.

All I want is some privacy where my private matters are concerned. Living with three adult children means I get very little privacy as it is.

I said I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on antidepressants because of the side effects hence the slow taper and they said I had to stay on the meds because it's like a diabetic needing insulin. I'm not anti medication in any way shape or form but I don't want to take meds for the rest of my life, especially when no-one knows the long term effects of antidepressants. I've already lost half my teeth because of them.

Today I feel like the lowest of the low. I feel like I've screwed my kids up, I'm a terrible parent (which they also told me last night because they were a recluse throughout their teenage years and twenties, something I didn't know how to deal with) and I don't know how I'm supposed to move on from this.

I've spent the last 13 years trying to raise my kids while looking after a disabled husband after he nearly died. I tried my best but obviously I failed. My own physical health isn't good these days either. I just don't know where I go from here with my kids when they think I was such a screw up.

Comments

  • Bluebell21
    Bluebell21 Online Community Member Posts: 1,660 Pioneering
    edited March 30

    Hi @starbuck I am so very sorry that your children are putting the blame for their childhood entirely on you. Surely if your GP advised you to come off Prozac and you did it was what was best for you.

    You were doing your best and none of us can do anymore than that. Children can be super critical of their parents but you were faced with a nearly impossible situation.

    You were looking after your disabled husband your children and your own mental health.

    Sometimes children remember what happened when they were younger as a child with limited understanding of the whole picture just how they think it affected them.

    I have three brothers and one of them swears blind he was treated differently from the rest of us as a child yet none of us think he was.

    As adults now your children have to accept that you have a right to do what you think is best for yourself.

    You did not fail you did your best.

    Have you spoken to your GP regarding reducing your medication and asking for some help to support you with this?

    Please take care of yourself.

    Be kind to yourself.

  • starbuck
    starbuck Online Community Member Posts: 206 Empowering

    No the doctors aren't too great at advising on withdrawals in my experience. Thankyou for your kind words 💜

  • SheffieldMan1976
    SheffieldMan1976 Posts: 743 Connected

    Don't worry, kids can be unforgivingly cruel.

    My own Dad's 77 and has Dementia (which runs on both sides of the family, Nan was 97 when she died in September 2016, thankfully she went peacefully in her sleep, I was still devastated though, I was very close t t'old lass)

    I remember about a month ago I was at Home at my Parents', for various reasons I was a bit upset/distracted, and was going on a long rant to Dad about recent stuff that'd gone wrong, he just tells me to shut up so I lost it/had a massive meltdown.