[kuro92]

I'm 22 and I'm taking care of my dad alone who just suffered a second severe heart attack(had 2 within just one year) in February. He's still in the hospital and not expecting to be home for a couple more months. My mom recently passed away from brain cancer where I was her caregiver as well for a year so I just feel completely devastated that all this is happening. I feel so guilty to think this way...but lately I feel like I've just been robbed of my life. I had to drop out of college awhile ago to take care of my mom and dropped out again to take care of my dad by working full time at a job I'm not so fond of and not where I want to end. I want to go back to college, but I have to take care of my bills and ridiculously expensive rent for my dad and I. He just also got fired and told he would not be able to work again. I just feel so miserable and numb right now and I feel guilty for feeling this way, but I want my life back so badly. I haven't lived since I was 18 before my mom got sick. I'm so scared I'm never going to be able to return to college and I'm just not going to get to do things I wanted to do at a young age. I feel like I'm a lot older than I really am. None of my family is helping. They just ignore me. It feels awful to be completely on my own. I pretty much destroyed all my relationships since I never had time to maintain them. I can't help, but feel incredibly jealous when I get on facebook and see my old classmates graduating and I'm just stuck here going no where ): I feel like I'm burning out.

[Puglife]

Hugs. I'm so sorry you are in this situation. Dr. Phil had this exact storyline on his show on May 26th. If you go to his website you should be able to watch it, it's the last 15 minutes of the episode. In that situation a 24 year old girl is the caretaker for her father who had a stroke. Another dr on the episode was brought in to explain to the girl that she needs to take care of herself before she can take care of her father. Put on her oxygen mask first, so to speak.

Can the hospital help you with resources on getting some help? Making time for friends and exercising or hobbies will help you to recharge your batteries. I hope that you can get the help for both you and your father.