Good evening all,
I am experiencing some rather difficult issues dealing with family. I know it has led me into anxiety issues as well as depression. First of all, my brother is married to someone who mistreats her children and I honestly believe she has her own issues that need to be dealt with, she has caused a lot of problems between my brother and I ever since they got married many blue moons ago. A few years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and was forced to quit my job until I could recover, luckily I am cancer free now, but during that time period I had to live with my brother and sister in law to make ends meet. They took advantage of me and took every penny that my now ex-husband brought home on his paycheck. If we did not abide by their rules they would threaten to kick us out and I had a daughter to think about. Since I was out of work, I also received food assistance and they took them too. Finally, We were able to secretly save back money and move out on our own, which saved me. I didn't know what I was going to do because I was so far into depression mode I couldn't think clearly.
Even though I no longer live with them I am scared for my life, I feel like what I have will never be mine and it will be taken away from me, I often have anxiety attacks when have tried to cut ties. I have 6 beautiful nieces and nephews and they always hold them against me. I finally decided even though it was family, I needed to let go and live my life. So what happens? they begin attacking me personally, first they try to go after my job, then they attempt to make phone calls to places like the government offices saying that I have lied about my situation and they have cut my benefits in the past. They never personally threaten me, it is things that I cannot trace back to them, but even if I confront them, they laugh about it. I have gotten to a point where I cannot even enjoy life or cut ties with them because they do things behind my back to harm me. They had a couple of friends come live with them from another state and they began doing the same thing to them, off to side I had warned them and they decided to get up and leave while they had the chance. The same things that have happened to me began to happen to them, they lost jobs, lost benefits because of mysterious phone calls and they are just plain hateful. Any ideas how I can process this? I know this was along post, but any help is more than precious to me!