My brother just doesn't get it.
All the stuff he says..he's completely insensitive.
He used to say a bunch of stuff when an anti depressant commercial would come on TV. It says that "Depression doesn't just hurt mentally. It hurts physically, too". Or something of the sort. At first he just said "well no duh!", but then I mentioned to him that not everyone knows that. He changed his tactics a couple weeks later, saying "yeah, when they cut themselves!".
And then today, he asked me if I thought alcoholism was a disease. I told him, yes, a mental one. I don't think their bodies absolutely need it to function, like your body does on really hard drugs like heroin and meth. But they need it to cope. It's a mental disease.
Well, my brother got a little annoyed at that. Apparently he thought I would agree with him that it's not. He said "but it's not really a disease". Again I told him that, yes, yes it a disease. A mental one, but a disease nonetheless.
He told me they "could just stop drinking beer!". NO! They can't "just stop it"! He doesn't get it! When you're addicted to something, if only mentally, to help you cope, to help you get through the fucking day, you can't "just stop it"!
I know he's thirteen. But he could show some sensitivity to other people's problems. He used to. And it worries me. Instead of being sensitive and caring, he's quick to anger and doesn't care if other people are in pain. His friend told him today about how funny it was that some girl in our complex tried jumping out in front of traffic again last night. And my brother laughed along with him. LAUGHED! I told him to be sensitive, that it's not funny if she has problems like that. But neither of them would listen, they said they used to care, but she's got so many problems, it's nothing to care about.
How can they act like that?! Laugh at someone's problems, tell them they should just snap out of it, and just be so....heartless? I don't get it. And I don't know what to do, it's got me lost. He was my sweet little brother. And he wasn't just sweet to me either, he seemed to generally care about other people. Where did that go? It can't just be the age thing. I never acted so cruel when I was his age.
What's happened to him? Where did we go wrong? It scares and saddens me.