Dear Eric: I am the oldest of three siblings, all in our 50s. I am very close to my middle brother. Both of us have spouses and young adult children. The two of us would like to build a similar relationship with our youngest brother but instead we both have made active decisions to create firm boundaries of time and distance from him, as he is consistently negative when speaking about all aspects of his life, he complains constantly, and he creates unpleasant drama where there is none.
He will not consider therapy, support groups or any gentle suggestion with regard to how he could improve his mood.
We lost our dad to Alzheimer’s last year, and he was the closest to him; he staunchly refused to prepare himself in any way for his death, although we urged him to do so…