Does having mentally ill parents decrease my AM prospects?

Ask RKR

M22 here and I know it's way too early to be thinking about this but i just can't stop thinking about this bleak future i find myself in.

My mother has been suffering from schizophrenia for the past 3 decades and this has resulted in their divorce pretty early on in my life. I live with her and my 83 year old grandmother and we both pretty much do all the housework. It pains me to see how their fates turned out this way: a poor soul that has had her whole life robbed by a debilitating sickness and an old woman who has not known peace her entire life. Sometimes I think about how I genuinely could not have survived without my grandmother: she practically raised me and cooked for me while my mother was fighting her own battles inside her head which I don't blame her for. We both only have each other's shoulders to rely on because I'm an only child and i fear a time when she is no longer around and i become her sole caretaker with no one to rely on.

I haven't even thought of being in a relationship so far because it seems like the least of my concerns now, there are days when I feel like I don't deserve love and that i willingly cannot subject someone else to this situation that I have to face alone. Sometimes I wonder if I should even get married, because I don't see a way out of this. Why would anyone wanna be a part of this after knowing my family history?

sigh idk, sorry for the vent. Might delete in a few hours

Posted Apr 8, 2026, 1:09 PM UTC

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