I’ve already posted this in a tribe forum, but this is the issue/obstacle I’m currently dealing with.

Posted 6-10-09

Recently I made a phone call.  I reported a family member to Family Services. This family member has engaged in a lifetime struggle with alcohol and addiction. He got married and had his first child six years ago, then he had another child two years later. Neither fatherhood nor his marriage has motivated him to get help and as the children get older, it only escalates. I have found and his wife has admitted to finding empty vodka bottles in the back of the car that he uses to drive around the kids in. I myself have witnessed him getting physically violent with his wife with his children there. He often disregards his responsibility as a parent and will leave the kids with me or my mother way after work is over so he can go drink. He has been drunk/high while he was the only one taking care of these children as well as being drunk/high while driving them around.

I made the mistake of telling my mother and my younger brother that I had made this phone call.  CPS showed up at their house yesterday, and my mother revealed that I had made the call. The consequences of that are that my mother has decided I’m not welcome at her house (where I’d been living after recovering from bipolar) and my sister in law has decided that I’m never going to see her children again. There were comments made implying that my mental illness is behind my decision to make that call and that I don’t know what I’ve done.

I have presented this to other people in my life (who have known me and my family for a very long time) and other forums to see what kind of feedback I get. So far, everyone outside of my family has been very supportive, but I’m trying to collect information I guess. My mother, my sister in law and my brother all come from alcoholic families. I would appreciate any feedback that anyone can give me. I only ask that you be honest.