FAQs for siblings

It's good that you know that your brother is being bullied because bullying never stops unless other people know about it.

If you haven’t sat down and talked to him about it yet, now might be a good time to do that. He needs reassurance and support to help him deal with it and to be able to explore some of the reasons behind it.

Everyone in the family is affected by symptoms of mental ill health and your brother needs to fully understand what has happened and why. He also needs the opportunity to talk about his feelings towards you and perhaps his own fears for what might happen in the future (will you get ill again, will he etc.) This might help him to make better sense of it all and then feel better able to stand up to the bullying.

It might be useful for him to read Rethink Sibs booklet: A sibling's introduction to mental illness.

You might also like to put him in touch with our Young Siblings team by contacting selena.grogan@rethink.org. They are currently running a young siblings steering group open to all siblings aged 14-25 and workshops for young siblings who live within easy-reach of London.

There is also lots of other information on the Rethink website that can help (www.rethink.org) and it might be worth contacting Young Minds who produce materials specially aimed at younger people www.youngminds.org.uk

You could also talk to the school as all schools have bullying policies and they should be able to intervene, they may also be willing to do some anti-stigma work around the issues of mental illness which would benefit everyone. This is something Rethink could help you with. Contact the Welcome Team on 0845 456 455 and they can put you in touch with the Rethink Mental Health Promotion team.

There are also some very good websites that deal with all aspects of bullying, for instance www.beatbullying.org www.bullyinguk.co.uk. 

It might also be good to plan some shared activities for you and him, a chance to get away and have a bit of fun together so he can realise that you might have been ill but you’re still the same person and still able to have a good time.