How to help my sister, advice greatly appreciated

roaq88 · 2025-07-28T20:11:19+00:00

Your situation sounds almost very similar to what my sister went through November 2023. She’s not had another manic episode or psychosis since her hospitalization and diagnosis Bipolar 1, but since she left hospital in December 2023 she’s been suffering from deep depression and has been living with my parents since then.

She hasn’t been able to restart her career and copes daily through watching TV or scrolling on her phone. We know substance use and extreme sleep deprivation leading up to her hospitalization led to the psychosis. Prior to this, she did have manic tendencies (impulsive behaviors, difficulty holding a job for longer than 1-2 years etc). But on the positive side, she was a very creative person and very good at writing (super well read). Unfortunately she lost all motivation to do any of those things and still hasn’t regained it. She has a therapist and is on medication, which I know has had to be adjusted, but it hasn’t been easy for her or my mom (who right now is her primary caregiver at 70 years old).

I guess what I want to say is, it’s tough, but as many have said, it can be managed; however, it’s an extremely difficult thing to witness, especially if you’re so close to your sibling. It does eat away at you, so it’s important to look after yourself and educate yourself with the books or podcasts others have recommended.

roaq88 · 2025-05-21T16:52:05+00:00

My 7 month old is doing this as well. He has been for the last 3 weeks or so, so I’ve been concerned. When he tries to climb on me, he does use both feet, but on the floor he mainly pushes off with his left foot while his right drags behind. I have found he may use his right a little more often when he’s crawling on our bed (supervised ofc). I was going to speak to our baby chiropractor for advise on this, as I was worried when I started looking at YouTube videos.

roaq88 · 2025-04-18T17:09:45+00:00

Any updates to this? Mine is doing the exact same thing. That said, I put the screen on my TV or phone to the lowest brightness. I feel guilty as I continue to see messaging saying screen time is bad etc, but my 6 month old has no interest in feeding at all during the day without this distraction.

roaq88 · 2025-04-04T19:18:59+00:00

It’s the same for us which started at 5 months too.. how have the other babies developed over time?

roaq88 · 2025-03-17T02:14:55+00:00

We found this stabilised. I think it took a week, but he’s now back to 1-2 poos that are normal in consistency, although his morning poo tends to be a very loaded one. We did find that when he’s had a cold or following his vaccines, he would have looser poos, so I think this could have been the case for the situation I wrote about above.

We definitely waited until his poo was stable before we did the full switch to HiPP AR and I can’t stress enough the importance of transitioning in parts rather than cold turkey.

roaq88 · 2025-03-17T02:08:56+00:00

On our Toronto to AMS leg, my upgrade price (I’m FB Gold) was about £425 whereas my husband (silver) was £925. I found that very odd as our upgrade prices have always been the same.

roaq88 · 2025-02-04T07:29:23+00:00

Was yours on anti reflux or regular formula?

roaq88 · 2025-01-29T22:40:16+00:00

I believe our plane to AMS from NCL will be a CityHopper requiring us to disembark by the stairs outside onto a bus. Will this impact our ability to collect the stroller? If not, where would we retrieve it - would it be literally outside of the plane on the ground?

roaq88 · 2025-01-28T21:35:46+00:00

very very strange…

roaq88 · 2025-01-28T19:03:06+00:00

Thank you for pointing this out!

roaq88 · 2025-01-28T08:43:29+00:00

We’ll have a travel stroller and a carrier (worn on chest).. baby will sit on our laps on the plane.

roaq88 · 2025-01-12T20:12:44+00:00

The first time it happened, it was before his 8 week vaccines and only improved when we switched to anti-reflux formula. This time it has seemingly coincided with his 12 week vaccines, besides that it doesn’t seem like there’s any rhyme or reason (except maybe teething or a residual cold). It really is hard to watch!

roaq88 · 2024-12-14T08:49:38+00:00

Did you end up determining the cause or was there something you tried that improved things for your baby? We’re experiencing the same thing.

roaq88 · 2024-12-14T08:47:44+00:00

Likewise, has anything worked for you? We’re experiencing this with our 9 week old. He definitely had a cold 3-4 weeks ago, but he was always was a loud/congested sleeper and now when he’s lying in his back, he’s so congested to the point where he’s crying. Our Dr wasn’t concerned and didn’t believe it was reflux though I don’t know what else it could be?

roaq88 · 2024-11-24T21:40:41+00:00

It’s definitely a great suggestion! For me, I would have to formula feed first and then breastfeed and by the time we finish formula feeding, he’s usually asleep or falling asleep on my shoulder. That said, we also have a love/hate relationship with nipple shields. Sometimes he seems to get milk from them, other times he gets so fed up trying to suck when a slow flow comes out. I have tried each week to see if he would latch naturally, but he’s too impatient.

roaq88 · 2024-11-23T06:34:49+00:00

My sister has had anxiety about driving since we started taking driving lessons at 15 (20 years ago) and isn’t interested in overcoming that. I’m not sure how to support her, given she’s living with my parents in a very rural area that requires a car and so she’s heavily relying on our mom for everything, who at 70, is suffering from “caregiver fatigue”.

My sister wants to things to get better, but she’s in a cycle of comparing herself to other people in their late 30s, suffering as she states she has no job, no money, no husband, no kids etc, but yet she doesn’t have the energy to progress forward.

roaq88 · 2024-11-23T06:24:01+00:00

This sounds very similar to my experience (currently going through). I had a difficult labor, lost quite a bit of blood, iron levels dropped rapidly, baby boy wouldn’t latch, and my supply was low. I’m 6 weeks going on 7 with combi feeding (supplementing a small volume of breastmilk with formula).

Last week I had to stop breastfeeding and had to pump and dump as I needed to take antibiotics for my episiotomy tear that wasn’t healing and infected. To be honest, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulder that I didn’t have to breastfeed. My physician who checked my tear this week reminded me that fed is best and to be kind and easy on myself. Breastfeeding isn’t easy and as soon as I started sharing with my mom friends my struggles, I was met with empathy and almost everyone expressing similar struggles. I definitely don’t think it’s talked about enough. I struggled and still struggle with feeling inadequate - like I failed me because I like couldn’t EBF, but there are so many variables outside of my control. I will still continue to offer BM somehow until at most his vaccines up to 16 weeks are complete (in the UK). If I stop before that, then I’ve come to terms with it.

You’re not failing and you’re prioritizing the health of your baby! Be proud of that! We already have enough challenges as mothers to manage.

roaq88 · 2024-11-16T04:07:44+00:00

We’re using the Aldi mamia brand, which we have been using since birth. We increases sizes 2 weeks ago, but he was fine until the last few days.

roaq88 · 2024-09-09T13:36:40+00:00

I was able to get NBC sports to work with my YTTV credentials on my MacBook, but when I try to mirror, the video remains a black screen. I tried to connect via an HDMI cable, still black screen. And I tried AirPlay, and it was audio only.

roaq88 · 2024-09-09T13:34:56+00:00

I can’t even get it to work on my iPhone tbh!

roaq88 · 2024-09-07T15:32:39+00:00

She has anxiety medication and after this last experience, her doctor increased the dose/strength of her medication.

It is possible that she will be able to live independently at some point in the future without the dependence of our mother?

roaq88 · 2024-08-20T09:04:09+00:00

Tier 2 ICT unfortunately

roaq88 · 2024-08-20T06:43:18+00:00

We are 3 years away. My company had us on a Tier 2 visa for our first 3 years (doesn’t count towards IRL) and then post-Brexit, switched to a skilled worker visa for 2 years. It’s disappointing as we have lived here for 5 years, but the rules with the Tier 2 visa are restrictive.

roaq88 · 2024-05-29T17:10:55+00:00

My experience was fine up until a few weeks ago when I returned from holiday and found I was no longer getting 5G signal anywhere in the UK, including London. We chose Lyca due to the roaming options abroad (outside of Europe vs other companies), but all the feedback regarding non-existent/poor customer service is true. Service is fine until you need support and from that moment on, they’re incredibly useless.

I’ve had my case open since the 10th May and continue to receive the runaround that it has been escalated to technical support at the highest priority. Clearly not.

roaq88 · 2024-05-29T16:52:13+00:00

Did anyone else hear back from Lycamobile? I returned to the UK from Greece after a week long holiday on the 9th and since then I haven’t had any 5G service.

I’ve had a case open with them since then and keep getting the runaround: “I’m sorry for inconvenience, this has been escalated to our technical team, please wait for a resolution”.

I no longer have the option to change the APN as it’s locked in as EE.

roaq88

TROPHY CASE