Does your family know you have SPD?

They must know, even if they can't label it.

My mom called the other day to "check and see if I'm alive." And it's the truth, because I never call, and I know I should. It's just very difficult when you have that feeling where you're loathing talking to anyone. I think it's amazing that people call each other all the time just because they want to -- you know, they want to know what happened during the day. I never did have that curiosity about people.

And my dad -- well I see him like four times a year since he moved outside of the city limits with my stepmom. He has that whole different family now with her kids. I don't know if he even thinks about me, to be honest. But I don't keep up my end either.

So they must know, and my sort of extended family must know because really the behaviour isn't all that normal I don't think. Even my grandmother kind of gets it. She'd go on about me being a spinster and not having a family and dying alone and all that but one day she said, perceptively that she thinks I like being a loner. So on some level they get it, even if they don't have the official diagnosis and even if I haven't been diagnosed.

smirks wrote: I think it's amazing that people call each other all the time just because they want to -- you know, they want to know what happened during the day. I never did have that curiosity about people.

No kidding. This is a great mystery.

There is no way I would ever tell my family. They are the reason I am here in the first place. I was brought up in the Jehovahs Witness cult and that's where all my isolation and other SPD issues come from. You know JWs shun family members who have turned their back in the religion? Well, I more or less had that treatment from congregational members while an active JW. They treated me like this because I was weak in my faith & I could be a bad influence on their faith. So I was isolated and here I am!! Paying the price and an ultimate example of how cult mind control can affect you when you are a young kid. I'm 38 now and I suspect I will be living with this for the rest of my life.

I would never tell my family that I have SPD. They would only use my mental health issues to justify what they have done to me in the past.

Obumbrata wrote:

nocturne wrote: Children or parents.

Your own children? Or your parents' children (as in your siblings)?

my parents, my children (3) and my sister.

I'm a diagnosed SPD, I don't have any close relationships to my family, eventhough I still live at home.
The closest relationships I have are my best friend (who I couldn't get off my back with a pointy stick at my lowest point) and my girlfriend.

My family knows, but admit they don't have the first clue about it. I think I preffer it this way.

I don't think my parents understand SPD. At one point, I e-mailed my mother the report with my evaluation and diagnosis, but it didn't have any effect. It is hard to convince my mother of anything once she has made up her mind. On the other hand, I can't really expect them to understand because I am a different person when I am at home than when I am around other people.

Obumbrata wrote:

smirks wrote: I think it's amazing that people call each other all the time just because they want to -- you know, they want to know what happened during the day. I never did have that curiosity about people.

No kidding. This is a great mystery.

You guys all make me feel so normal I typically don't answer my phone unless I know who it is, and they have called at least 6 times in the past week, at which point I'll answer it just to get them to stop calling me

My mother doesn't know I have SPD.

Yes, they know.

No. My parents are very invested in nothing being seriously or permanently wrong with their kids. Whenever I was sick as a kid my parents would blow it off or act like I was just being melodramatic (mostly because they couldn't afford to take us to the doctor).

My brother, father and I have all had multiple major depressive episodes which my mom writes off as "just feeling blue". I remember my parents going apeshit at several of my teachers (5th grade, 7th grade, 10th grade) who suggested I was depressed and should get professional help.

My dad is very introverted and thinks I'm just shy and that's fine. My mom and brother both still think I'll grow out of it. I'm 37.

And I don't see the point in telling them really. I don't really look to or get support from my family in that way. For years it's felt like we're just four people who lived in the same house for awhile and for some reason still call each other once a week to mostly talk about TV shows and the news. They're not interested in talking about anything real and even if they were, I'm not sure how much benefit I'd get out of it.