Andrew KimmelVerified account

4/ It was 11 years ago that our family was hit by its first major blow. My sister began to suffer from mental illness. It was so gradual that if you didn’t know about it, one could never tell anything was wrong. But it got worse.

5/ My sister lost her job, her apartment, her friends... she moved in with my parents who offered everything. But her condition kept deteriorating. She’d spend a few days to a month at a psych ward & would then be released back to my parents w/ no roadmap or long-term options.

6/ My dad began to pay for out-of-pocket programs, doing whatever was out there that could help her. She spent time living on a farm in MA that cost $11K/month. She got thrown out. He got her into a university’s mental program that cost nearly $20K/month. She got thrown out.

7/ There were no options. No help for her condition that was becoming more debilitating. My parents began losing close family friends. Our internal relationships became heavily strained. The helplessness, frustration, & stress my parents endured can not be put into words.

8/ Then my dad got diagnosed w/ an incurable nerve condition called peripheral neuropathy. He said it felt like his body was on fire from the inside & required bi-monthly visits from a nurse to provide plasma transfusions leaving him out of it for days. He continued working.

9/ After exhausting all options on the east coast, my dad decided to move my mom and sister out to CA with the hopes of better treatment, starting a new business, and to be closer to me. At that same time, I was given the opportunity to work at @BuzzFeedNews in New York.

10/ Within a month of me moving back to NYC, my family moved to California. The timing of things was actually comical. But the move to CA did not solve any of his problems.

11/ Mental health facilities in CA were better, but options for long-term treatment & care were virtually non-existent for my sister's condition. And the main financial backer for his new company decided to pull out, leaving him with no investor and no money.