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Old 11-28-2005, 10:34 PM   #3 (permalink)
shutterbug
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Join Date: Aug 2004
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Please do not go slipping anything into your sister's food! Please!
She might be insane and she might be a sociopath, but that doesn't give you a right to drug her. If she is that bad off then your parents can have her admitted into a psych hospital for evaluation and possible treatment, but unless she comes to terms with her own problems and wants to change NOTHING will change her.

Your parents need to learn how not to be co-dependent....meaning that they can still love her and help her, but not to the detrement of their own health. Same goes for you. They need to love her from a distance so as not to get wrapped up in her problems....which means THEY have to change. And you can't make them change either. They only thing you have ANY power over is yourself....how to change yourself so that your sister can live her live however destructively she is gunna live it and not let it affect you negatively. Can be a tough thing to do, but it is the healthiest thing to do.

Your sister has to fail and not be picked up every time before she will ever decide to get help for herself. Knowledge is also beneficial for someone who might have a mental illness.

I'm not convienced (although, I'm not a doctor) that your sis is a sociopath. Sounds like she definetly has poor social and coping skills though and that can be helped through therapy....but again, it's something she has to want for herself.

I personally dated a guy off and on for a year who was a self-proclaimed sociopath, and he definetly fit many of the patterns of one, but about 70 percent of me believes he is not a true sociopath b/c he often morns the loss of his sons to the extent of uncontrollable tears (and he's one of those men who refuse to cry in front of people). Other than that little tid bit....he fits the sociopath profile. Mostly, he's super-highly intellegent and an alcoholic (which complicates ANY mental health diagnosis) and I think he tells people he is one just so he can get away with his actions and not be held responsible for them.

And if she is a sociopath, then you have to realize that it's an illness, just like cancer and she can't control it.

Can it be cured (if she is)....NO!

Can it be treated....yes, but not completely (or very affectively, I think, but again I'm not a doc and only know what I researched about the illness when I was dating this man last year.

I personally believe that good therapy would be most beneficial...that and if your parents or anyone else quite enabling her...it will make her have to face the reality of her actions. But here again....i never researched prescribed meds for a sociopath, so there might be some very good ones out there that a good psychiatrist could prescribe.

Is she insane? That's something totally different in my opinion. I don't think anyone can be rightly called insane unless they have totally lost touch with reality (like a girl I met once who said I was her daughter and she was married to a famous rap star and the next she was married to the nurse at the hospital and she kept asking me if I was gunna start visiting her more often and why was I mad at her and she wanted to give me her diamand wedding ring that looked like it costed $5,000 to $10,000) And even her, I don't really think she is insane. I could tell by her closes, jewelry and make-up that she led a very normal life when she was on the proper medications and I came to the conclusion that she probably stopped taking her meds like so many do from time to time.

Overall.....insane is just not a good word to use, in my personal opinion.

And maybe she is just a mean person for whatever reasons. Doesn't mean she's a sociopath. My brother-in-law (only for a short while longer) is going through his 3rd divorce and I believe he has some serious problems, but is no where near being a socio-path....he's just a very mean and stubburn person who doesn't want to change or try to be happy. and that's his choice if he want's to live his life that way.

It also took me 7 years to get my BA degree....doesn't mean i'm a sociopath....i just didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and I struggled with all of my math classes and many of my other classes b/c of my learning disabilities (that I wasn't aware of during the time).

Honestly....I wouldn't be surprized if your sister has a substance abuse problem, but I could be wrong.

All-in-all, there's really nothing you can do except point out that she is distroying your parents mental health and that they need to take care of themselves first or else they will end up so bad off that they won't be able to help her, you or themselves when REAL help is needed. Then take your focus off of her and let her destroy her own life and worry about YOUR happiness. Might sound cruel, but it's actually more beneficial to her than the way most of us react to family like that. I'm speaking from experience with that. Take care of yourself.....you have no more power than to control your own life and trying to control someone else's life is wrong and worthless and ineffective.

sorry if my words sound harsh. They are spoken with lots of care and concern for all of you.

Hugs,
Jenna
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