Thank you for the responses.....makes me feel like I am not so alone
as I thought I was. My brother's problems are related to alcohol
use, and believe it or not, none of us, my mother, and my brother's
son, included, knew that he had a drinking problem prior to August of
this year. He lost his job in February, and I guess he turned to
drinking heavily, whereas before, he was a functioning alcoholic, as
he worked and took care of his needs. When I look back, now, with
knowledge that I have gained in the past few
months, I see signs that just screamed alcoholism, but I didn't know
that what I was seeing was related to drinking. When I found out in
August that he was drinking, I tried every resource I could find to
get help, and every one told me that they could not force him unless
he got worse. Well, he got so much worse, that on Oct. 10 I had to
have the police go in and take him out, he could not walk, was
hallucinating a lot, was sitting in dried up diarhhea because he had
no running water to clean himself, and could not get to the bathroom
even if he would have had water. Dealing with all of this has been
so stressful, in many ways I am handling it alone, as my mother is
older and unable to, and my brother's son is 22, but too young for
the legal responsibilities of all of this. I go to see him daily,
and am struggling to find some balance with my old life, and what
this new reality is. As hard as it is for me to see him as he is, I
keep thinking how hard it must be for him, because he does not have
any memory of what has happened, or why he is in a nursing home now.
My husband is angry about it, because he sees my brothers situation
as being entirely of his own making, which is basically true, but how
do you turn your back on your only brother? He has never done
anything but be a good brother to me, I am just so sorry that he has
chosen alcohol as a way to deal with his hurts or problems, I wish I
would have looked closer sooner, and been able to help him.
Thanks for letting me ramble here, I am so torn up by all of this,
and don't know anyone else who understands what dealing with WKS is
like.