u/imfamousoz

Hi all. I found this sub while trying to find somewhere to talk about something that's happened recently.

My sister is diagnosed as bipolar. I don't know further designation beyond that, she has not shared that info.

My whole life has revolved around the chaos of her illness. She's hurt me a great many times over the years. I've always done my best to process my feelings and work towards stability and reconciliation for her sake and for the sake of our whole family.

Some years back I was SA'd at a party. She later dated one of the men who was involved. They had been dating just shy of three months when he died in a car accident. I almost cut her out of my life when she started going out with him. Somehow I found it within myself to try to move past it. I still don't really understand how I managed to do that. She's my blood and I knew she was hurting, I guess.

A few years after she died she called me and confided in me that he had been a crappy boyfriend to her. We talked about the assault. We talked specifically about how painful it was for me to have to see a bunch of people celebrate his life and mourn him every year. We ended that conversation effectively on the same page that he was not a good person.

She just went and got a tattoo memorializing him. She sent it to me and didn't tell me what it represented. I found out from a paragraphs-long Facebook post about how much she missed him. It reopened all those old wounds for me. I called my parents and told them the miserable details of what happened between me and this man, and made them aware that my sister knew about all of it. My parents say that she's unwell and I need to toughen up for the sake of everybody's kids. My husband and closest friends think that I've suffered enough and I should cut her out of my life. Right now I don't ever want to see her again.

How does one begin to cope with something like this?

Update - Thank you all for the responses! I felt iffy about bringing that topic into the game anyways but y'all have given me confidence that it's the right decision to leave it out. It's mostly teens and adults but my youngest players are elementary aged. I'm just going to tell the player that asked that we're gonna leave that sort of stuff off the table. Ideally I'd like everyone to have a fun experience at my table but if leaving the heavier elements out is a deal breaker I'm fine with letting them walk.

I run a biweekly one shot table at my local store. The intent was for it to be a child friendly beginners group. Unfortunately we have a shortage of willing DMs in the area. I've made it open to whoever wants to play, with a clear emphasis that it needs to remain child friendly. None of my players have had any issue with this but I've run into a situation I'm not sure how to work with. I have an experienced player who asked me if the NPCs had any negative feelings about working with a Drow. I hadn't really given it any thought up to this point. I don't want racism to be a heavy element at the table really, but I do think it's valid to consider. Any suggestions?