Dinner in the Loony Bin

My parents had everyone over for dinner last night - me and Jordyn, my sister and her girlfriend T, and my brother and his girlfriend G. The drama started before dinner did, and the whole time we were there, I kept thinking, this is like having dinner in the loony bin. My brother, my sister, and G are all diagnosed with severe mental illness. My brother and G met at a support group for people with bipolar and/or other severe mental illness. I don't know G's exact diagnoses, but I know she has PTSD, and I'm pretty sure she also has bipolar. Unlike my brother, she's very responsible about taking care of herself, takes her meds religiously, knows when she needs a med tune-up, and has checked herself into the hospital. And, my sister, of course, with her new diagnosis of bipolar, plus the anxiety, depression, and seasonal affective disorder diagnoses she's had for a long time. 

My sister was discharged from the hospital on Monday after being there exactly one week, but there's no denying the fact that she's still at least fairly manic. She's most definitely not herself. It's weird, because she came over for dinner on Wednesday, and I didn't pick up on the mania so much, although she just really annoyed me. That's not so unusual, but in hindsight, I think it was partly due to the mania, or maybe hypomania. But I think between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening she may have gotten worse. She sent a really weird email to all of us yesterday, although some of it was just kind of "her". And she left me two ridiculously-long voicemail messages today, even for her, and just sounded "off" in both of them. And my brother definitely said a few manic-ish things last night, although he's not nearly as bad as he has been. 

At one point last night, I went up to my sister's girlfriend and said, "Please tell me you're not diagnosed with a severe mental illness! I don't want to be the only "sane" one around here!" or something like that. She laughed, said she isn't, and totally got what I meant. I hope my sister and brother's girlfriends both stick around, because I really like them. G is a hair stylist, and gave both Jordyn and I haircuts last night. We really needed them, and she did a good job, even though Jordyn's bangs may be slightly uneven. She charges next to nothing; when I asked her what I owed her, she said "twenty bucks?". I gave her forty. 

Oh right, the drama that started before dinner... I don't even know, it was so weird. G had just cut my hair in my parents' bathroom, and I was cleaning up the hair from the floor. My sister came in crying and asked me to help her. She was trying to get a CD to play in the stereo. I told her I'd help her when I was finished cleaning up the hair. That apparently wasn't good enough. She ended up sitting on the floor leaning against the wall next to the stereo, crying, and incredibly upset because she couldn't get the CD (or the right song on the CD?) to play, and my dad ended up helping her. The next thing I knew, she and T, my brother, and G were all standing in the living room, and my sister walked away upset, crying, saying something like "Really, A [my brother]? Shit!". I have no idea what that conversation was all about or what she was reacting to. She went outside, my mom thinks because she thought T was out there, but she was in the kitchen with Jordyn. 

I don't know how much of this I can take, or how much I want to expose Jordyn to. My dad walked Jordyn and I out to the car when we were leaving, and I asked him if he was going to change my sister's inheritance to work the way my brother's is set up (basically he'll have to access it through a person and not have easy access himself). He said "probably". And then he said that sometime when I have a few hours (ha!) we should sit down and he should go over things with me, because someone needs to know. I think he means stuff like my parents' will, their assets, etc. I have no idea about any of that (although he had told me about changing my brother's access), except that please know that when I say "inheritance" it's not like a gazillion dollars or anything, just what they happen to have to leave to us. So then I asked if I'm going to have to be the person in charge of everything, and responsible for deciding if and when to give money to my sister and brother when they ask for it. He said probably yes - which I figured was going to be the answer because there's no one else - or I could set it up with someone else who'd be paid to do it. Neither of those options sounds good to me! 

My parents went away this weekend, up to Vermont to visit my aunt. I'm glad they went. It's peaceful up there, and they needed to get away. I'm considering taking Jordyn to Disneyworld in January for my (big) birthday, along with my parents. I think I'll limit it to just the four of us! Hopefully my siblings will be in a good enough place then, so that the trip won't be ruined by one or both of my parents having to stay behind to deal with their shit. 

The other thing I keep thinking in regards to my sister's diagnosis? That I just lost a babysitter. I know - so insensitive! But it's true. She was a free babysitter. And now, I just don't know if I'll ever feel comfortable leaving Jordyn alone with her again. Maybe. But maybe not. 

And I really want to bring another child into this literally crazy family?!