I am one out of two kids in my family. I am the oldest. Being the oldest is fun. I think it is. When we were young, my brother and I had a good childhood. We went camping. We were in scouts. We went all over to visit museums.
I noticed that my brother and I was drifting apart when we got older. When I was a teenager I had some behavior issues. My parents took me to experts to help me solve these issues. At the same time, my younger brother was having some mental health issues.
My younger brother thought he was on a TV show, just like the movie “The Truman Show.” He thought that was his life. At the height of his sickness, he couldn’t come out of my family's house at all.
My parents found out that he had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and also paranoid schizophrenia. My mom and dad and my younger brother came up with the idea to not tell me. It was hard to hear the news that they wanted to keep a secret from me. For the longest time, I felt guilty that I brought this upon my brother.
Now I am 34, married, went to post-secondary school and have a career in TV, working on ET Canada and Global News. Russell is 31, he lives in a group home, he never got a high-school diploma and he has to take medication all of his life.
I do still see my younger brother once in awhile. It is so hard to relate to him but the more I see him it gets easier. I love Russell and that's my story.
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