[sarah12]

I read the thread 'kinds of social anxiety' and want to tell my story as someone who wants to help a sibling with the disorder.

My sister was diagnosed with PTSD and social anxiety but I think she may also be depressed. I can't figure it all out and she hurts the rest of our family a lot, myself included, because she won't let any of us in, and in fact just doesn't want to talk to any of us. I'm the one that's closest to her and the only one she'll talk to on the phone, but even still, we get in a lot of arguments and currently we aren't on speaking terms (as of last week).

It hurts me a lot because I feel like I can't do anything about it and I just have to sit here and watch her scream at everyone she hates and watch her wither away. She also doesn't eat very much and so she's lost a lot of weight, lives on her own and never calls anybody. I have a hard time talking to people about it and I'm tired of my parents bugging me about her, because I feel that there is simply nothing that anyone can do until she makes the decision to make herself feel better. She's gone to counselling before but had to give that up once she was out of school because then you have to pay for it.

I don't know what to do, it's the only thing I cry about because it's like I don't have a sister, and my whole family is scared to talk to her because she'll either hang up the phone on us or scream her head off to leave her alone.

I don't want to live like this for the rest of my life. Somebody help! Send me some links or tell me what I can do.