{"id":8847,"date":"2022-04-12T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T10:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=8847"},"modified":"2026-01-19T15:56:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:56:35","slug":"overcoming-the-loneliness-of-siblingship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/overcoming-the-loneliness-of-siblingship\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming the loneliness of siblingship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jahnavi was excited to become an older sister, but when Keshav was born with complex needs she realised their relationship would be different. Now age 15, Jahnavi, talks to us about how Sense Siblings service<\/a> has supported her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My family came to England from India about two years ago, when I was 13-years-old. It was just before the pandemic so we spent a lot of time together as a family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keshav, my little brother, was born with complex needs when I was about four. I remember really looking forward to having a brother to play with. But Keshav, like lots of others with autism, prefers to be by himself. We can\u2019t play like other siblings and mum worries that I\u2019m missing out all the fighting and affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s hard for people who don\u2019t have disabled siblings to really understand. I spend a lot of time on my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In India, we used to invite some friends over. They knew about Keshav and, even though he never wanted to join in our games, everyone felt comfortable hanging out at my home. Since we\u2019ve been in this country, I haven\u2019t invited any friends over. As the lockdown started soon after we moved here I started to become quite shy and stopped meeting new people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sense gave me somewhere to fit in<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My mum first heard about Sense at a virtual coffee morning and she was very excited about the Siblings service. She told me that it would be a chance for me to meet other siblings like me, who have a family member with a disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was pretty nervous about meeting new people. Even though I\u2019m friendly I find it hard to make friends, maybe because I\u2019m not able to be very social at home with my brother. My mum told me that if I didn\u2019t like it, I didn\u2019t have ever have to go again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That session was the first time I met other siblings who had brothers or sisters with disabilities. We were all on the same page and it was easy to feel included and connected straight away. This was a different experience for me as often I\u2019ve felt excluded from groups, usually because they talk about things that have nothing to do with my life. But here, I didn\u2019t feel like I was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New friends and a new me<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Jahnavi<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are so many different activities at the Sense sessions. Dancing, mindfulness, bowling and football \u2013 and lots of pizza! Since I first started the Sibling service back in August 2021, I\u2019ve become happier taking part in activities. It\u2019s easier for me to talk to new people and make friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one person in the group that I\u2019m really good friends with. We talk a lot outside of the sessions. I can talk about my life without having to explain it to someone who has no clue what it\u2019s like. Having friends like this helps me not to feel alone. We\u2019re facing our situations together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My relationship with my brother has stayed the same but I feel like a different person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jahnavi was excited to become an older sister, but when Kashav was born with complex needs she realised their relationship would be different. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[218],"class_list":["post-8847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","display_author-jahnavi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8847"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=8847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}