u/CardiologistFunny835

I have a friend who got engaged. For context we’ve known each other a fairly long time (about 10 years) and while she is not my closest friend I thought there was a chance I’d be in her wedding but I also understood if I wasn’t cause again we were not the closest but we were in the same friend group. Her birthday party was coming up there happened to be a snowstorm that day and myself and other people couldn’t make it out. However I have two friends that got there before the storm hit and I saw on Instagram that she had given them bridesmaid boxes.

Flash forward to next weekend it happens to be a different mutual friends birthday party. This friend proceeded to bring bridesmaid boxes for other people to this person birthday party. They went into another room and I could hear them opening it and getting excited while I was sitting outside awkwardly. it truly was one of the more awkward experiences of my life. I later found out that her initial plan was to hand out all the bridesmaid boxes at her birthday which when you have other friends coming that aren’t in it feels so odd to me. I found the whole thing to be a little mean and self-absorbed. Not being in the wedding is fine she can have who she wants but I feel like it’s pretty common practice to either have all the bridesmaids together when you ask or to ask them separately doing it in front of others feels mean especially at another persons event (her maid of honors birthday party) I haven’t looked at her the same since and have kept my distance a bit tbh. She invited me to her bachelorette and I find myself not wanting to go after all that

Hello my brother (31M) was diagnosed with bipolar II about a year and a half ago ( though he still doesn’t believe he has it)

He had some mild anxiety problems in high school but in college started experiencing depression for the first time. Post college he started exhibiting more manic episodes (though we didn’t know it was mania at the time) Since then it has been process of him entering into manic episodes, very intense depression (where he will express suicidal ideation) hospitalizations, and him not being able to keep jobs. He has gotten fired from many places or will just flat out walk out of places and not show up whenever he is very depressed. He currently lives with my parents cause financially he is not able to support himself and mentally we would not trust him on his own.

Today he had an interview for a grad school program. He has been very depressed and expressing suicidal ideation and refused to go today and missed it. He is always saying how unhappy he is with his life but does things to actively make it worse.

I’m really in need of some support from others. I feel like my family and I are unsure of how to help him.i often feel like we treat him with kid gloves but im not sure how much that has helped. He does take his medication and he has never actually attempted to harm himself before but he still makes very awful choices and says a lot of concerning things that have us terrified from day to day. A part of me is really angry and fed up with him for all of this. It’s been years of this and it’s a lot on my family and I too. I just wish he would do more to help himself. Not sure how we can help him or what to do next. I’m so scared of him hurting himself but also am tired of walking on eggshells around him all the time
Not sure if anyone else has gone through something similar and can offer up advice I’d really appreciate it