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Boundaries for mental well-being
Youth well-being and boundaries
free e-book on young caregivers

Your peer, Canada.

I wish my parents had support. I wish they could have gotten it without fear of losing their kids. Shame and stigma is why my mom never took any supports. My mom never took hand outs as she called it and worked 3 jobs. She would be gone when we got up, and come home when we were in bed. When we went to my dads he was always drinking so he didnt take us too far, just to places he could go drink. My older siblings were left with the responsibilty of childcare. We all had to learn to cook, clean, and do laundry at an early age.
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Boundaries are ok, and caring is ok too.

Boundaries are like a window-they allow us to keep out harmful weather and let the good weather in. Boundaries with people, especially with parents with substance use challenges can be more difficult, but still important and allow us some rest and respite. A few things that helped us:

Family boundaries
peer support for youth well-being
Before you move on, consider taking a pause moment: 

This is heavy stuff, click here for a moment of pause

Stressful experiences that we might experience at home as an informal caregiver

Note: We are not crisis response and all information is not to replace your local professional crisis response support 

Hi my name is Joan, many people don't realize that we are first responders, well, kind of. Click here to learn about what a first responder is.

Many of us have been the first responders during a mental health crisis at home, supporting our parents through their toughest moments. Click here to learn more.

Click below to learn about and connect on some of the experiences where we've had to be a first responder/ caregiver:

Withdrawal

Drug Toxicity

Overdose

Family Violence

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