Documenting a Mental Illness in the Family

Today was a bad day. Robin crossed the line into hurting herself. This is my recount of the day's events... I went to work as normal around 6am. Robin got Archie off to school. We texted back and forth a little. My nephew, Jake is in the hospital recovering from brain surgery. I don't discuss too much of his status with Robin for a few reasons. She doesn't like bad news. And if he gets out of the hospital after having brain surgery within a week, it opens old wounds from when Archie was in the hospital for 6 months...just to make sure he was okay. Everybody else seems to have it easy on hospital visits. Anyway, my brother has been doing group texts to me and by siblings. He has had some pictures of the stitches and x-rays of the tumor that was in his head. I didn't prebviously show Robin the "stiches" pictures. But she did see a pic or two of him asleep in his hospital bed with his head shaved. But nothing bad. This is related to what triggers R

Death of Cousin Breakup with Jonathon First Time with Lollypop guy Living with guy who physically abused her Crazy Kurt Relationship Last Boyfriend Car accident Josie's birth - Post Partem Archie's birth Archie's first year Death of Mother Death of Father Going cold turkey on depression medication Josie dropping out of High School menopause

Silent Robin Angry Robin Sweet Robin Mean Robin Scared Little Girl Robin

In this post, I'm just kind of documenting what I know that makes up the current state of Robin.  I'm not sure I'm going to post everything at first, but I will mention the important things. It probably needs to be mentioned that the women on Robins side of the family all have had some sort of mental illness.  Her mother & both of her sisters do.  I know her sisters are both taking standard medications to address it and I think for the most part it works for them.  Robin's mother suffered dementia at the end and her father went through the caretaker stages of dealing with a spouse that suffers mental illness.  Robin was affected by her mother's death and learning of some of the details and worries that she is going to have the same thing happen to her in the end, and worries that she has passed it on to her daughter.  I believe Robin's mother's mother also suffered from mental illness.  So it was baked into her DNA from the beginning, and in my opinion,

Robin was the little princess of the family and like most families with multiple kids, the parents were stricter with the first born and became less and less strict as the family grew as they realized they probably didn't need to do it. So the older siblings probably often complained that Robin got to do things or special treatment that they didn't get. At least that's the impression I get from the stories she has told me. Robin worries about what her sisters think of her to this day because of it. It's a strong influence on her. She never has felt she was as close to her sisters as she wants to be. And longs for their approval on everything. They don't often approve of her or what she

My name is Chris.  I'm married to Robin.  We have 2 kids (Josie & Archie). I'm starting this blog and documenting some of the things that are going on in my family, mostly my wife.  Why?  Because she is suffering from a Mental Illness that most people in our lives have no idea to what level it has taken a toll on her or what is going on.  I see the worst of it daily.  Robin lives it daily.  Our kids probably know something is going on, mainly because of how they have distanced themselves from her.  Her best friend knows a lot.  Her sisters know very little, but they know she has been on medication. Robin hides it well in public or in front of people.  But it takes a lot of her energy to do so.  Once she is behind closed doors and can let go of putting on the show, I can see the toll the day took on her.  It's not pretty.  She is suffering.  She is miserable and going through hell.  And times, it feels like all is lost and our once happy little family is gone for good,