My Mom Won't Take My Brother's Being Suicidal Seriously...

Parent-child relationships have always been the worst of all other type of relationships. Here, you could leave each other, but you'll always know and maybe end up with the blood connection issue. Everyone knows this, goes through this, bears with it. Now, how can a troubled son break free from his growing emotional and mental issues possibly rooted from a potentially growing toxicity of his relationship with his mother?

My younger brother has always been emotionally fragile. He was just 7 or 8 when truth about my parents started flashing onto his face harshly--that they were separating and hurting each other.

To be honest, I think his coping abilities weren't even fully developed at that time that until now, he'd cry in frustration when our dad who has left us like we weren't his would show up and treat us more like a charity job rather than family. That is why despite how challenging it might be to guide my younger brother, I make it a point to be there when he needs to vent or share stories I know my mother claims she doesn't have the time for.

My brother suffers from emotional issues I know he needs professional counseling for. As a Psychology major, I'm handling his transition to such process little by little. I want to make sure that my being there for him is greatly established before transferring him to someone else. I want to make sure that he gets the support he needs before fighting the battle he needs to win over. My mom told him such feelings were invalid--that she who has been through a lot doesn't even "whine" about it so why should he?

That argument is flawed. She has a different way of coping, and she has chosen to conceal everything in her favor which now manifests in her parenting as problematic for my brother's situation. My brother was not as mature as I was when he had to be forced to work his way through the harsh emotional consequences of my parents splitting up, and she cannot ask him to cope the way she might have, for it is obviously not working. Also, we have this beautiful time to seek the help we need emotionally and mentally--to talk about issues that have to be addressed and crushed out of our heads.