Thinking about joining a support group but not sure what to expect?
Don’t worry, we don’t sit around in a circle and share our deepest feelings, we do things a little differently here at MOIRA.
Saide recently joined our online group for carers of young people and adults with disability and has shared her experience.
I’ve been my adult son’s (the eldest of 3) carer since 2015 when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The truth is though that I’ve always inhabited the role of carer for him as we (my husband & I) supported him through the many challenges of being different. He was not diagnosed with Asperger’s until he was 19 despite having been in the care of a paediatrician and psychiatrist (and occasionally other specialists) since childhood. He now has multiple mental health diagnoses. We often wonder how much difference a childhood diagnosis would have made for his life and for our whole family. We are now engaged in a family therapy process to address the many layers of trauma.
I’ve always been wary of support groups having tried a few in the past and always felt that my problems were insignificant compared to other participants. So, when the invitation to this group appeared in the email from Christina I was still wary. However, I decided that I would give it a go. I wanted to meet and talk with other people who were hopefully in similar situations to my own. At the first meeting there was three of us including Christina, the next four, and then in August just two of us. I’ve found the time spent chatting about our lives incredibly refreshing. We’ve shared our stories, listened to each other respectfully, shared resources and ideas. Christina has similarly offered resources and ideas.
In our busy lives as carers, it can be a challenge to set aside time to talk. My Thursday evening is usually devoted to routine tasks but after the first gathering where I really forced myself to click on the link, I now look forward to it.
So, click on the link on the fourth Thursday of the month and join in what will definitely be a relaxing, inspiring, interesting time of talking about our lives as carers for our young adult children.
Saide.
