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My name is Adriel Rivera, I am 15 years old and I've had the roughest year of my life.

My mom is hospitalized for her mental illness, one that not only affected her but the entire family for a couple of years now. But, this past year, she was at her worst.

I remember once, I woke up in the middle of the night to loud pounding coming from downstairs. So, worried, I ran to go see what it was. My mom was hitting her dad from, what I could assume, a poker game. She thought otherwise.

It wouldn’t be long until she became a complete stranger to me; she'd accuse the family of things that didn't make any sense and purposely sabotaged my dad ’cause she thought his only intention was to harm her.

My dad would sleep on the couch and my mom would be pacing back and forth in her room at night because she couldn't rest. She was paranoid, afraid that my baby brother, who was two years old, would be taken away from her. The curtains of the house would be closed and, every time she picked up my brother from daycare, she was suspicious that the workers had done something to him.

This wasn't my mom, and my family knew that. My brother and I tried to explain this to my aunt, but she passed it off as my parents having a-- bad marriage?

My mom told my aunts, uncles and grandparents that everything was my dad's fault. And they believed her. But they didn't really know what was going on in the family. They didn't know my family. We were in the deep end and our air was running out.

My mom started to zone in and out of conversations and, other times, she'd start a conversation as if we were already talking back and forth for the past hour. But I hadn't said a single word. She was hearing voices; voices that so obviously weren’t real, but had her convinced that the baby was talking to her.

She was dangerous and I was scared. But, luckily, my aunt finally realised that something was wrong, after her and my mom went on vacation together. She told the rest of my moms family and, soon enough, they able to trick her into a mental hospital.

After countless failed attempts from me, my brother and my dad trying to convince her, she was diagnosed with psychosis and will be treated for the next couple of weeks. We were supposed to visit her every week but I never wanted to. I couldn’t bear to look at her after the things she had done to my family. I just wanted her gone.

She's home now and doing well, and I’m glad she's here, but I still carry around this baggage. I try to tell her all the things that have happened. She doesn't remember any of it and denies that she was ever mentally ill and it hurts! How could something that lasted for years and torn down my family mean so little to her?
I was broken and one of the most important people in my life weren't there to save me. I went through hell! And the least she could do is acknowledge that!

I understand it was out of her control. It’s not her fault. And she was the victim and I'm sorry things had to happen the way they did. You're a great mom and I appreciate everything you do for me. I'm happy you're finally back but I still feel--