lisa simpson's saxophone
15-09-2003, 05:30 PM
My sister suffers from a form of OCD where she gets fixated on stuff and over-anxious about it. This is usually school stuff but not always. She went to the doctor when she was 11 and he gave her some sort of counselling which seemed to help, and her school are on the look out for her all the time, She's just been allowed to drop one of her GCSEs because the pressure's building (she'll be taking them this summer) and I don't know if that's going to help or not.
Basically, once she starts panicking about something, that's it, she won't stop. Just to give an example, she had this project for her art GCSE and she came up against a bit of a hurdle, so I sat there for ages with her going through possible ways round it and ways to branch out. But all she kept saying was 'no, I'm going to do something else instead...' even when I came up with loads of good ideas for her. She just wouldn't take any advice, all she wanted was to rip up all her preparatory work and start something new. She's dropped Art now and I don't know if that will help, but I hope so because it was becoming a real problem.
Anyway, my parents are getting really worried about her but I have to admit that sometimes I feel like they make it into a bigger thing than it is, making the problem worse. Like, as soon as she gets stressed about schoolwork I think they get worried that she's going to start spiralling down again, when as a student myself I see it as something everyone goes through every now and again.
I'm off to uni in a couple of weeks so I won't be around much longer, but I wondered if anyone has any advice anyway. Sometimes I feel guilty because I feel like I make her feel silly about stuff, but then again I don't want to indulge her too much because she thrives on it. She says stuff about 'my depression' and 'my illness' and sometimes (it sounds horrible but it's true) I think she likes to feel special, like she's got something wrong with her which other people haven't. Am I making any sense?
Sorry that this was a long one, and I know I've probably come across as a really horrible sister but I just want some advice from other people who've lived with depressed relatives or friends, because it's really hard knowing what to do.
Basically, once she starts panicking about something, that's it, she won't stop. Just to give an example, she had this project for her art GCSE and she came up against a bit of a hurdle, so I sat there for ages with her going through possible ways round it and ways to branch out. But all she kept saying was 'no, I'm going to do something else instead...' even when I came up with loads of good ideas for her. She just wouldn't take any advice, all she wanted was to rip up all her preparatory work and start something new. She's dropped Art now and I don't know if that will help, but I hope so because it was becoming a real problem.
Anyway, my parents are getting really worried about her but I have to admit that sometimes I feel like they make it into a bigger thing than it is, making the problem worse. Like, as soon as she gets stressed about schoolwork I think they get worried that she's going to start spiralling down again, when as a student myself I see it as something everyone goes through every now and again.
I'm off to uni in a couple of weeks so I won't be around much longer, but I wondered if anyone has any advice anyway. Sometimes I feel guilty because I feel like I make her feel silly about stuff, but then again I don't want to indulge her too much because she thrives on it. She says stuff about 'my depression' and 'my illness' and sometimes (it sounds horrible but it's true) I think she likes to feel special, like she's got something wrong with her which other people haven't. Am I making any sense?
Sorry that this was a long one, and I know I've probably come across as a really horrible sister but I just want some advice from other people who've lived with depressed relatives or friends, because it's really hard knowing what to do.