Brain tumor

danny12

Hello-
I may be in the wrong forum here so please excuse me if so. My older brother is 38 years old and was diagnosed with a brain tumor approx 4 years ago. It has been a rough road for my family and we need help. He has become an alcoholic and extremely tempermental. He may now have to go in for his 4th surgery. He is not receptive to anyone and he has destroyed most of his realtionships with friends and even family. He has threatened family members - mainly my mother. We do not know what to do next. We do not want to have hikm committed but we are scared he may harm someone in our family. He is definitely not the same loving caring person he used to be. The brain tumor, alcoholism, loss of his father when he was younger (14) and depression has now created the perfect storm. Any advice is welcome. Thanks for listening.
-Danny12

PBJ Austin

You've come to the right place, welcome
In addition to the obvious stresss this illness can cause, the brain tumor itself can cause a person to act out. My sister has Anaplastic Astrocytoma. She had one large tumor and 2 smaller ones. They were able to remove the large tumor but the smaller ones are inoperable.

Before these tumors were diagnosed she had some similar behavior patterns including alcoholism. She went into therapy and stopped drinking but she was still having issues with depression and dark thoughts. For years she acted out and we thought she was mentally unstable. But once the large tumor was removed she became a completely different and quite loveable person. I realize this did not happen for your brother but I would like to suggest that someone in the family should speak with his doctor. It sounds to me like this is a combination of depression issues from years ago combined with the physiological problems being caused by the tumor. Perhaps he can get on some meds to help control these mood swings.

I'm not an expert but I do hope this helps. Please come back to this board for anything you would care to discuss.