Amid brother’s long struggle with addiction, a teen is tired of being their parents’ “invisible, forgotten child.”
My brother is six years older than me and always in some kind of trouble. He was an alcoholic by 14, heroin addict by 16. I was abandoned by my parents when they started coping with my brother’s issues. Basically, I raised myself after the age of 10. Feeling like I could only depend on myself from such a young age was such a lonely place. I couldn’t even explain to people how upsetting it was to have parents, but not have them at the same time.
In just the one exchange you describe with your parents, I see where they missed an easy chance to do better by you. There was only one answer to your long-in-coming outburst at being invisible and forgotten: “You are right. We haven’t been here for you anywhere near as much as you deserve, and we’re sorry.” They owed you that validation.
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