Do you have a dysfunctional family ?

If you look up the actual definition of "dysfunctional family" (I used Wikipedia) it makes me very sad that over half of people here seem to have one. To me, the phrase "dysfunctional family", along with "suicidal", "depression" and "hypochonria", is one of many which are thrown around too much by people who don't REALLY know what it means.

The way dysfunctional families are portrayed on TV is sort of worrying to me. They make it sound as if it is cool to be in one. All the families in sitcoms that label themselves as "dysfunctional" are much more loving and functional than a real-life dysfunctional family.

No, I don't have one. A more distant branch of my family was one though. It was pretty horrible to see what was happening, to be honest. It isn't funny at all.

I think I can say I do or at least used to for most of my life.
My parents aren't normal parents. They were very strict and quick to anger about even the smallest things.
My dad was a heroin addict and very very verbally abusive and occasionally physically.
My parents fought a lot, split up a lot, and made up a lot. It was a constant weekly roller coaster me and my siblings had to endure at a young age.
My family lacks sympathy/empathy. We don't care how each other are, we don't hug, and we don't have an emotional connection whatsoever.
My mom is very controlling and thus making her very strict. Her and my dad also stayed together for me and my siblings.

There's a lot more but I won't bore you..

Yes I have a dysfunctional family.

My dad walks around naked. If that's not dysfuctional, I don't know what is...

Majority voted "yes". does it say anything about IIN community?

My parents had A LOT of shit going on between them and other family members before me and my twin sister were born. We inherited arguments and grudges between family members from our parents.

Mum & Dad are both cannabis addicts. My dad's antisocial, unmotivated slightly narcissistic. He had a heart attack (which he survived) when I was a child, which he blamed me for even though I was too small to have anything to do with it.

My mum's lazy, conceited and bordering on anorexic because she doesn't like to eat carbs. She also likes to make up highly imaginative and deluded, escapist fantasies about her side of the family (according to my mum her Swiss relatives met Hitler and helped him dominate Switzerland) to give herself a sense of identity and "achievement".

Crazy stuff huh?

It's depressing to see that so many people have had mountains to climb in their lives i know so many people that had been through hell!
My story is similar to everyone's.
My mums walked out on me and my siblings when i was 4 to a wife-beater,
two of my brothers are mentally disabled,
my dad is on anti-depressants, a heavy drinker etc..
pretty much everyone i know is a drug dealer or a user and so on....

Sometimes i wonder how people cope with pressure like that...
People like us should be proud that we haven't followed suit and that we want to make a difference no matter what gets thrown at us.

Makes you wonder why people lie about things like this to be honest!

My so called father and I have never really bonded. Not long after my brother was born he left us. Checked in a few times. My mom would drop us off at his place, but we just seemed to be in his way since he started a new family. Now that my brother and I are older I realize that if I want any sort of relationship with him or my step sisters I will have to break this barrior and speak to him. It's extremely hard to do so not that conversation wouldnt flow but its awkward and the time is not now. Maybe there never will be a right time to re-connect..

YES i completely agree! At first when i was marking my answer i was doubting if i should put "yes" or "maybe" because i hate it when people just feel sorry for themselves and are all like "oh my family is so bad and i hardly know my parents blabla".

basically, one of my uncles died of his alcoholism, another one is on his way to the same fate. My grandfather (whom ive never spoken to) was beating his wife and children. my grandfathers sister got sexually abused. my brother does not speak to our father anymore, this started when he was 16 and has been going on for 4 years now. my parents were VERY close of getting divorced one time when i was 12. my dad has been depressed and as some of you might know, stuff like that can be carried on in the family. Therefore i was lucky enough to become depressed for about two years, one year was really intense where i would have death anxiety all the time.

Im fine now though and im refusing to become one of those people who dont make something out of themselves and then blame their upbringing and parents. "i had a terrible upbringing so now i have a hard time being around new people and thats why im not sucessful in school" etc.

after writing all this, i know that im not the only girl in the world with a family situation like this but it sure as hell cannot be 40% that has a "dysfunctional" family like me and some others have.

Well, my mother and my little brother are really the only average people in my family that I know.
My brothers fathers and my own father were drug dealers, abusers and alcoholics.
My two uncles are also quite "not normal". One of them is a pedophile and the other is mentally unstable.
My older brother has high anxiety and is very depressed.

Does that count as dysfunctional? I haven't lived or seen most of them for a long time, but I've lived and known them alot in the past.

I don't think I live in one now, but I used to.

I thought I had a dysfunctional family, but I also looked up the definition to be sure, and it turns out I don't. We're just an odd bunch.

Yes, dysfunctional. All violent alcoholics.

I'm not sure. Sometimes I would think yes and then other times I would think no

Most of my family are alcoholics, 2 of my aunties have been admitted, one of my uncles is a neo-nazi. And the one thing we all have in common is that we all shout and argue with each other.

yeah...they are.

I think a dysfunctional family is when family members dont talk or see each other.....