Family Support or Not

I thought I had problems until the day Diane walked in. She announced she suffered from anxiety, ADHD, Depression, and Agoraphobia. OK, that means she is sad, hyper, not focused, anxious, and scared to leave her house.

Of course, all and all, the group is a motley bunch. Every one of us has our issues, our problems, our neuroses, and our diagnosis. It seems each is unique with our own quirks. They say you are never cured, you just learn how to manage - a scary thought at best. Great, it would be my luck to have a disease that is incurable, personal, goes into remission, and then, out of nowhere, rears its ugly head.

There is Levi with his multiple personality disorder. His responses are always interesting because there is usually more than one and often they conflict with one another. Although I have never heard one of his "personalities" talk to another and so far he has always spoken in English. (There was a gentleman in the IOP with the same disorder whose two personalities carried on a conversation, one of them speaking English and the other French.)

David wants to argue with everyone. When the therapist asked him why he is inclined to argue, he replied that he did not argue with anyone. "There are just stupid people out there who say stupid things."

Of course there is Peter who is convinced no one likes him (but his cat). He suffers from anxiety and depression.

Bob has social anxiety, fights with his siblings, and only wants to play video games in his basement. Otherwise, he is just depressed. Our President accuses folks like him of hacking into our systems and effecting (affecting?) our electoral process. Given he lives in the United States and does not speak Russian, I seriously doubt it.

An older lady, Margaret, dressed in very expensive clothes and jewelry, joined the group. She said her diagnosis was depression and psychosis. She was silent until the discussion turned to support groups and our families. The therapist asked each of us to describe our relationship with our families. 

Levi loved his family and did not have one, David feared his wife would leave him, Peter stated no one liked him and his mother called him names, and Bob said his parents were dead and he missed them very much. The older lady spoke up for the first time, "I hate my children. I wish they had never been born."

"Well", said the therapist,"Let's start with you, Margaret . . ."