Well my family is coming to visit me this week. They live on the other side of the country so it’s about a 2000 mile trip to get here so it’s a big deal. I’m feeling so anxious and I was really unstable for a couple days just recently. My family doesn’t know I’m getting treatment, they don’t know I’m on any medication, when I only ever talk to them on the phone it’s so easy to make it seem like everything is fine. Now I’m looking forward to seeing them, but it’s been causing so much anxiety lately. They CANNOT find out I’m seeing a psychiatrist for my symptoms, they are anti-medication and they thought I was faking it/lying for attention when I was younger despite medical professionals disagreeing with them. I got sent to a boarding school for a year to straighten me out and I haven’t discussed my mental health with them since. They only thing they believe me on is my self-harm because they could physically see it. I’m worried they’re gonna find my meds or I’m going to act or say something stupid that’s going to cause them to find out. Feeling so nervous right now, they land on Thursday and I’ll be seeing them on Friday morning. We’re supposed to go into the city and that makes me panic just thinking about it, let alone all the other things with my family I’m not sure how to act “normal” in stressful situations so that they won’t see that I’m struggling.
It’s too bad you couldn’t just be honest with them. Don’t you think they’ll find out the truth sooner or later anyways?
Your family and I would certainly butt heads. They shouldn’t be so resistant to you getting treatment for a real problem you have. Your health is important and is secondary to their beliefs. If they want to be rude and mean about you using medication, they don’t deserve to call themselves family, in my opinion. Family should care and want you to get better, not be miserable because they think you’re faking it.
I moved away from my family for my job and that’s when I sought treatment again because I knew they wouldn’t find out. I can’t lose my family and I can’t have a stress on our relationship because that is a big trigger for me so I just thought it was better they didn’t know.
While I agree with you, they are my family, and I love my family, My dad just recently told me how proud he was of me for what I’m accomplishing. It made me feel so guilty because he has no idea how much I’m actually struggling right now. My last suicide attempt in 2016 they didn’t find out about and I never told them, they have no idea. part of the problem comes from when I was in boarding school I was ready to say and do anything to come home and I eventually just told them I didn’t hear voices anymore despite the fact that they got so much worse when they took me off my medication in boarding school. I just learned to hide it better and try to cope with it other ways. Now I’m afraid since I told them they went away they are not going to listen to me now, even though it’s been over 6 years since then.
I strongly disagree with hiding it from them just to placate them, but that’s me. I don’t believe in indulging toxic family members just because they’re blood. There is a reason I am cutting my father out of my life as soon as I leave this house. Toxic people like that will only drag you down, based on my experience.
I have at times contemplated telling them some things that are going on, but not everything. Like give them an inkling that I’m struggling with depression or something like that and leave it there. But in the past the best response in terms of support I’ve gotten was being told that I need to pray more and that they would pray for me.
Sometimes I get nervous let’s say if my older sister were visiting. She doesn’t know about my problems that I’m experiencing, also I haven’t seen her in a long time. Also I’m kind of shy.
I’m so sorry that you have to deal with that 
I haven’t told my parents about my struggles, either. I know they would just find a way to make it about themselves.
I hope you make it through the visit okay 
How long will they be there for? Are they staying with you?
@anon2818416 I’m sorry you have a similar experience, it’s hell to go through. Have you told them anything in the past and it didn’t go over well? They’re only going to be here for 5 days and they are staying about a half hour away, so they’re not staying with me.
See, my father came to me yesterday. He asked me, essentially, “why are you like this?” He could not accept the answer that my brain is just wrong. He asked me why. I said I didn’t and couldn’t know, but I do know that I’ve been like this since I was a child. We ended up getting into a fight because he believed he had no part in the worsening of my issues and disagreed vehemently when I reminded him that, during my childhood and teenage years, they all made fun of me for my issues instead of seeking help for me.
Eventually, he angrily told me religion would fix me, and that that’s what I needed, not medication or therapy. I firmly believe he would be unsupportive of my treatment process, so he is as good as dead to me. He does not deserve to call himself family if he does not want to acknowledge he messed up and that I need real help for a real problem that cannot simply be prayed away.
If your family is even remotely like this, I would say these are people you don’t need in your life.
@ZombiePupper I’m so sorry for your experience with your father. I’m definitely afraid that my dad would get like that if he finds out again, but right now our relationship seems so peaceful and nice and genuine. I’m just keeping the mental illness struggle from them. I think I’m going to bring this up at my next appointment with my pdoc and see what she suggests, but for right now I just need to get through this family visit.
That’s awful. I’ve definitely put distance (physical & emotional) between my family and I. I’m sorry you had to, too
@Hanna_Foxx Hell is the right word, ya. My parents are very much of the idea that, since I have it better than they did, that I should never have any complaints or negative emotions or apathy or breakdowns, or avolition or …
Five days is a while 
Do you think you might get some breaks from them, if they have to drive 30mins to see you?
My family does that too. Every time I tell my family about some of my symptoms, they always say that they experience that too and they don’t let that get in the way of their “normal” lives.
If you can work and live 2000 miles away from them without their help I think you are doing fine for yourself. You don’t have to mention it but I would think they should still support you.
Everybody in my family already knew. I was in the Marines when I got sick and they notified my family and even flew most of them out to see me the first time I was hospitalized.
@anon2818416 Yeah I’m not spending the whole time with them, I have three days off work I get to see them, and I work the other two and will probably only have dinners with them on those days.
@TomCat That’s where I think I stand on my current situation, I’m handling my mental illness and seeking treatment on my own, I don’t feel like I need to mention it to them.
I’m glad that all your family got to know at once, that seems like a difficult thing to handle, but maybe better in the long run.
My family is all very, very religious. And they are, some of them, also very mentally ill and untreated. They think they can pray away their problems and think I should do likewise. I think my maker put doctors and medications in this world for me to use for my benefit.
Well tomorrow is the day… horrible anxiety already.