[insanity500]

Hey guys I have a super important question that I would love to get your opinions on.... How special or important is family to you and why????

[Sabrina]

My family is all I have! I don't have friends. It is just my husband, son and mother (and of course the in-laws), so my family mean the world to me, otherwise I would be utterly alone!

My brother, father, and sister, are the 3 most important people in my life. They are supportive, hilarious, non-judgemental...and have many other wonderful qualities as well. They are all understanding of my mental illnesses and do not judge, especially my father, who is diagnosed with major depression & OCD.

I love spending time with them. And although I have many schizoid symptoms...they are the exception to my usual loner life. They are basically the only people I am close to.

my birth family means nothing to me. both parents are long dead & my brother & sister i have not seen or heard from in over 20 years. i have a cousin who is a pedophile priest who i have not seen in person since 1982 & the last i heard of him was in the grand jury report..so yeah we don't keep in touch.

as for MY FAMILY OF CHOICE...they mean everything to me. for them i would hurt people. i am blessed with incredibly awesome friends, doctors etc who fill in as family. they all know my background & step up for me when i need it.

i am so used to being independent that i forget to ask for help...my friends know this & help without asking. my dr's make sure i don't get forgotten on holidays & birthdays.

like i said my birth family sucks. they are abusive, evil people of whch i am so better off without contact. i suppose if i wanted to i could locate my brother or sister & contact them...but also they could do the same. it's not going to happen..i ended up caring for my mother who was one of my abusers for years...they did not. i do know that if i won the powerball lottery both of them would be on my doorstep in less than 24 hours...which is where they would stay...out on the doorstep.

my friends & i would be enjoying ourselves quite nicely!

so yes...my adopted family is very important to me..without them i would probably not be alive.

By "family" do you mean strictly mother/father/siblings (nuclear family) or does that also include extended family?

The only reason I would consider my nuclear family important at all is that, without them, I wouldn't exist. Literally. Beyond that, my father was a horribly abusive tyrant and my mother never made any effort to stop him. My mother, one of my sisters, and I have a somewhat decent relationship now. But, for the most part, I wouldn't take great notice if they vanished off the face of the planet.

My uncle was more of a father to me than my actual father. He raised me like I was his own son. And he taught me many invaluable lessons which have helped me tremendously even now and which I now teach my own kids.

And then, of course, there are my wife and children, who are simply amazing and understanding. I would be in a great amount of anguish if they disappeared off the face of the planet.

[DenisDonnacha]

We're not very close tbh, I can't wait until I have enough money to leave most of them behind. The only people I like in this "home" are my dogs lol

[gma45]

My Kids are everything to me. As to blood brother's I don't have any that I care to acknowledge. Family of choice is everything!

[Fresia]

My family is important to me though we struggle. Most of my mutual support comes from in particular my Dad and my extended family, my friends, who are much more like family than some of my blood relatives.

[splitimage]

I really don't have that much in the way of family. My Mom died when I was 13, my Dad died when I was 22. I have 5 brothers but I'm estranged from all but 2 of them. One I talk to on the phone a few times a year - he lives a 5 hr drive away. The other, is a lot older than me, and we're a bit closer, but he doesn't get me at all. Doesn't understand my struggles with MI and Addiction. He tries to be supportive and is in his own way, but it's awkward. I have one cousin I reconnected with a couple of years ago. We're so similar it's scary, she and I get along really well although we don't see each other very often.

My family now is my friends and people I've met through AA.

I'm deeply incredibly lonely sometimes, and wish I had more / closer family - but I have to accept that it is what it is.

splitimage

[Penny T. StDuhnam]

Um, estranged from ENTIRE family! Just to stressful to have contact with any member

[faerie_moon_x]

My family is extremely important to me. Even if they don't understand me at all.

[cin1]

My Dad and Brother are important to me, even though i never see them. My h provides for me to a point. i want to let go of them, but i would be left with only myself and for now, i am not enough.

[starry starry sky]

Originally Posted by dark_heart_x

My family is extremely important to me. Even if they don't understand me at all.

This is the 1st time in here so dont know if Im typing in the correct space. I have tried my whole adult life to get my parents to love me. I had 2 daughters who are now grown. One is a nurse. She was a psyc nurse. She knows exactly what to say to break me. She will say Im the person in the family everyone wants to hide. She has caused so much trouble for me. My family laughs at me all the time and I dont know what to do either.

[hahalebou]

My nuclear family (mother, father, grandmother) is very important to me. If I didn't care about them, I would have followed through with some unsavory thoughts.

The rest of my family I'm pretty distanced around; the exception being one of my cousins, and one of my uncles (to a certain extent). I care about the well-being of my extended family, but I wouldn't feel entirely "safe" around them as I would my parents or my grandmother.

@starry starry sky - I'm so sorry to hear that. That sounds needlessly cruel.

[Resident Bipolar]

My family are incredibly important to me...even though I don't always show them that and don't exactly behave appreciably towards them.

We have our disagreements. But. They are the only people that have been with me my entire life. Unfortunately some of them I will never see again, and I wish I had known longer before they left (oh no, I'm tearing up. MOVING ON).

Yeah. My family are always there for me. They're my rock - they protect me and look after me. And wow, my mum has put up with so much. I think it's amazing, the way that she has looked after me during the worst parts of my bipolar disorder. I also know that she has been scared for years of waking up to find me...well, you know.

Hooray to family! ♥♥

RB ♥

[Resident Bipolar]

Originally Posted by starry starry sky

This is the 1st time in here so dont know if Im typing in the correct space. I have tried my whole adult life to get my parents to love me. I had 2 daughters who are now grown. One is a nurse. She was a psyc nurse. She knows exactly what to say to break me. She will say Im the person in the family everyone wants to hide. She has caused so much trouble for me. My family laughs at me all the time and I dont know what to do either.

OH sweety that is horrible
I can't imagine to know what that must be like. It sounds so sinister and just....horrible.

Here for you....

RB ♥

[moxielady64]

I am estranged from my mom, dad and sister. I will keep in touch with my brother though.

The family that is important to me are my children, my grandson, my boyfriend and most of my extended family.

[lizardlady]

Originally Posted by insanity500

Hey guys I have a super important question that I would love to get your opinions on.... How special or important is family to you and why????

My answer to this question would have been different at different times in my life. At this stage I have no family. My parents, brother, grandparents, aunts and uncles are all dead. I have some living cousins who live half a continent away that I have no contact with.

When my mom was alive she was not only my mom she was my best friend. There were times I was angry with her for not protecting me from my father's abuse, but I loved her inspite of the anger. She was the person I turned to when I needed help.

I was 15 when my brother died. Until then he was my rock. I never understood why my friends fought with their siblings my brother and I were so close. We kept each other safe from the lunacy in the house.

I had a complex relationship with my father. He was an abusive alcoholic. I grew up being told I had to love him because he was my father. At the same time I had deep seated negative feelings about him because of the abuse. I don't know if I ever loved hiom, but I had feelings for him.

sorry for the long answer...

[Unrigged64072835]

It's hard for me to consider my family of origin as special. We were four distinct personalities that clashed with each other all the time. My dad was abusive and my mom was an alcoholic, and they fought the entire time I was growing up. I couldn't turn to either of them for support, although my mom gave me money and stuff and my dad yelled at her for doing so. As for my brother--let's just say we brought sibling rivalry to a whole new level. My parents are now dead and I only talk to my brother rarely.

My current family is very important to me. My daughter, as quirky as she is, is my pride and joy. I'm married to a man who has been very supportive and kind. They keep me going and they help me laugh when I feel down.