December 10: "Carol" Dip Monday, Mental Health, Dysfunction

I come from a family that's really good at guilt and anger and depression.  The Holy Trinity of family dysfunction.  Of course, this time of year simply magnifies these problems.  We are expected to be together and behave like the Waltons.  Unfortunately, Christmas morning at my parents' house is more like celebrating with the Bunkers.  Lots of inappropriate comments, lots of whispering and eye rolling, and lots of overeating.  Throw in some depression and other mental health issues, and that's the yuletide season at the Saint Marty homestead.

Of course, my family is no different than any other family.  There's no such thing as a functional family.  There are simply levels of dysfunction.  Even the Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie had to deal with drug addiction and racism and class conflict.  If I were to rate my family, I'd place us somewhere between the Bundy clan and the Ewing clan.  Of course, that doesn't mean I hate my siblings or parents.  I love them, with all their faults.  I'm pretty sure they feel the same way about me.  (I have been the three-headed stepchild for a long time.  The lone Democrat in a family of Republicans.  A poet and musician and teacher.  I might as well wear a sign at family gatherings that reads, "Try not to talk about me until I leave the room.")

I have a particular sibling who is struggling at the moment with some severe depression and anxiety issues.  She's been struggling for quite some time.  Over a year.  If I try to talk to her about mental illness, she simply shuts down.  I can see a physical change in her body, as if she's a rose that's folding into itself to avoid a frost.  In the past, she's always been the person in charge.  The sensible one.  The one with all the answers.  Now, she puts everyone on edge.  At family dinners, she slams dishes and snatches plates.  She hollers if the fork is set on the wrong side of the plate.

Christmas and New Year's Eve for this sibling is going to be a challenge.  On New Year's Eve last year, she was practically in tears because the "crowds" of family/friends in the house made her anxious.  She's even worse this year.  If she makes it to January 1 without major medication, it will be a miracle.

My questions for Carol dip Monday is pretty simple:

Will my sibling get help for her mental illness problems soon?

And the answer from the great book of Dickens is:

Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time...

That's a pretty good answer.  If my sibling would be "gay and light of heart," we all would have a Huxtable Christmas.

Sing with Saint Marty:  "Joy to the world, Prozac has come..."

It's all in the family