TW: Family abuse…
Idk where to start & I know I’ll get some nasty comments on this subject but I need outside perspective.
For much of my life, my brother has struggled. He got a lot of the bad end of the stick. He had really bad behavior & my dad would discipline him by spanking him. It was excessive & abuse. He would bruise him for weeks & even sometimes make him bleed. My dad till this day doesn’t feel/believe he went overboard & says in fact he should’ve beat him more cuz clearly he still acts a fool. I was witness to this & have carried my whole life the fact that I didn’t protect him. While I was a kid myself, it’s how I feel. Well over the years we have come to find out that he was sexually abused. The first time he opened about it & said something was about 13 years ago & it turned out to be a family friend who my dad trusted to care for him. But as recently as this week, he has opened up more, out of a fit of (justified) rage & has mentioned 2 other people who did it to him as well. One of which is our older sister. He said he doesn’t remember anything about it or if it was frequent but it happened. After speaking with our sister, she didn’t deny it & said exactly when it happened. We were all super young & little & it was an isolated, one time incident. May I add, that we were all molested as children by different individuals & I know that’s the contributing factor to my sisters actions. But I find myself torn between making my brother feel protected by having my full support but also my sister. I feel like a hypocrite because I’m saying to myself she was a child herself & I know the rooted issue & it was isolated so I guess I’m trying to justify it. I love her more than life & I know cutting her off would make my brother feel supported but I also can’t see myself doing that. This has broken me to my core & my heart aches for my brother. I see his demands & he’s so hurt & angry. He caused physical pain to himself yesterday & now is losing all he’s built & that hurts to watch as I know that after all he’s been through, from my dads abuse, to several sexual abuse encounters, our mom abandoning us, a step-mom emotionally mistreating him, to witnessing a friend be murdered, I just don’t know what to do to support him or deal with all this information & how to process it. Where do we go from here, how do we heal? How do I help him heal? How do I help save him? He’s my brother & want him to see the beauty life is for himself. Idk what to do. I can’t stop crying & have no idea how to handle this or where to start.
Thank you for getting this far. Please be kind.
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