One of Those Families

Someone asked how my NAMI* Family-to-Family support group is going. I told her about the heartbreak, the confusion, the frustration of the families in the group as I listened to them speak.

I said for all we’d been through, I’d never had to call the police to my home. I never had to use the threat of going to the hospital as a way to get my loved one to take their medication. And I never feared for my safety because of my loved one. I talked about how hard it was to listen to the stories of these families.

And then it hit me. I am one of those families. I have one of those stories. I have a loved one in as much peril as they do. Even though I’ve not had the same experiences they have, we still have our challenges.

We are one of the families that NAMI has created the support groups for.

When I realized that, and verbalized it, she nodded. Because she’d known it all along.

*NAMI – National Alliance on Mental Illness – offers programs for those supporting loved ones with mental health conditions and facilitates support groups for people living with mental health conditions. For more information about NAMI and to find support near you, go to https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI