Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Should I confront my mother about medical neglect that has affected me?

I started developing some problems in childhood. When I was 4 or 5, I started ripping off my nails and skin on my fingers. I was sick one day in kindergarten and didn't tell anyone. After that, I hardly ate anything. My mom would pack me the same lunch every day and ask if I ate it. I said no, and she continued to pack the same thing. She gave us tiny portions of breakfast and dinner. When I was a teenager, my dad tried to get me to eat cereal that had bugs in it. My mom kept overcooking dinner which was 1 chicken leg, 2 tablespoons of corn and maybe a cup of applesauce. I was severely underweight from age 6 into adulthood. I developed osteoporosis and kyphosis and scoliosis because I didn't get enough calcium/vitamin D because I didn't eat. She never took me to the doctor because I was too thin. I couldn't control my bladder when I was 5. I had accidents at school starting at age 5. My dad took me to the doctor for nocturnal bedwetting. Nothing was mentioned about my accidents at school. I would need to urinate after every class in middle and high school. Right now I still have poor social skills for being an outcast because of my accidents. I was diagnosed with overactive bladder when I was about 22. I am 26 now. I tried to figure out what was wrong with my bladder and asked my mom if I could see the doctor when I was 17. The doctor told me I had anorexia. All my mom did was call her boyfriend and never mention it again. I was about 100 pounds and 5'7" at that time. I developed an inflamed stomach lining at some point. My doctor finally helped me fix it within the last year. My specialist was stumped. When I started ripping the skin off my fingers and ripping my nails, my parents took me to the pediatrician once or maybe twice and claimed I was biting my nails, and he just told them to put stuff on my fingers that tastes bad. I still do it to this day and have no idea why. I don't know if I'm still anorexic, but I think after about 10-15 years of maybe 500 calories/day, it would probably cause severe damage and probably shorten my lifespan. I can only remember about 5 times my parents took me to any doctor between ages 5 and 18 not including immunizations. My dad wanted some kind of psych eval/counseling done during the divorce on my mom, my sister,and me. I went to a counselor about 3 times, and that was it. There was never an evaluation done, and the counselor had been my parent's neighbor for 15 years at that point. Is this stuff even worth bringing up to my mom? How can I figure out how much my lifespan can expect to shorten from the starvation?

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