preview

Overcoming Obstacles

Decent Essays

Overcoming Obstacles In my culture, society looks down at mental illness and when news of mental illness gets out in the society, one’s reputation is pretty much destroyed. My elder brother, Imran, was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was a teenager. My family was still living in Bangladesh at the time and my brother’s illness was treated as a secret by my parents. My parents went above and beyond to hide my brother’s illness because we come from a culture that is quick to condemn parents for their children being abnormal, my family felt very protective of the fact that we had mental illness in our family. Family visitation and guests in our home were strictly monitored by my mother and my siblings and I were coached to make excuses for my brother. My brother’s illness shaped me as a person because I realized that I needed to be able to overcome the obstacles life throws in my way in order to take care of my family. After we immigrated to America, my elder brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental disorder that affects a person's ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. My parents were in shock because my brother went through years of treatment that was wrong for his condition. New challenges arrived as we found ourselves in a foreign country, trying to overcome struggles that we never faced before. As parents were forced to work minimum wage jobs, I took on the responsibility of taking care of Imran because we were always very

Get Access