Topic Tuesday // Caring about, not caring for // Tues 20 Aug, 7pm AEDT

[Kelly69]

I have a 31 year old son with bipolar and BPD and has suffered trauma in his childhood 

I also care for my father who has PTSD and I believe has frontal lobe dementia 

[Shaz51]

Hello @Kelly69  xx

@Former-Member , @Determined , @Smc , @greenpea 

[CheerBear]

Hey @Former-Member and everyone here 🙂 I'm not sure how much I'll be able to participate tonight but I'm definitely interested in this topic.

I'm here as there are a few people I care about in my life (my kids and my parents mostly).

Looking forward to joining in if I can, or reading through the discussion later 🙂

[outlander]

hello and welcome @Kelly69
I hope theres some tips here that you find helpful. your welcome to create a thread for yourself as well so we can help and support you through your journey too

[Former-Member]

Welcome @Kelly69 ! You are in the right place for our Topic Tuesday discussion and it's great to have you join the forums. Well done on posting for the first time too! 

[Shaz51]

@Georgie_Girl , @Faith-and-Hope 

[Former-Member]

Hi @CheerBear ! Thanks for coming along. No pressure, this thread will be here for anyone that wants to read back through it at any point. 

Looks like we have quite a few people coming through which is fabulous. Might give it another minute then we will move on to our first discussion topic. I feel like there will be a lot of great knowledge sharing happening tonight woo!

[outlander]

@Sophie1 @JessT maybe you would like to join in

[Former-Member]

Welcome warmly the the forum @Kelly69 I am Whitehawk the moderator this evening. Feel free to ask me or others if you need help navigating the forum. We have a Tuesday Topic this evening in the carers forum about caring - "caring about, not caring for" Feel free to contribute or to post on any other thread.  I am sure the forum members will offer you support, information and connection.

cheers Whitehawk

[Former-Member]

Lets get started on the first discussion point!

Sometimes, when you are aware of someone struggling or having a hard time it can be tricky to know how to open up conversation with the around it. You might ask them if they are okay and they just let you know they are fine. But you notice more and more that they don’t seem to be. How do you have a supportive conversation? What kind of things can you say to help them feel supported or help them feel like they can open up to you?