Hi Reddit. I’m trying to figure out if I’m wrong here, because everyone keeps acting like I’m the villain — but I’ve been through hell and I’m finally done.

A few weeks ago, I cut off my entire immediate family — my sister, aunt, and someone I grew up calling my brother (though he’s technically my cousin). We were raised like siblings because his mom (my aunt) and my mom were close. My brother is schizophrenic and also a drug addict. I’ve always tried to support him, even when it hurt me. But recently, things reached a breaking point.

He showed up one day with a dog — supposedly an early birthday gift and “peace offering.” The next day, he called me sounding out of it, and I told him not to come over. I had stuff going on, and I just wasn’t up for his chaos. Minutes later, he’s in my apartment anyway — my roommate had just come home and let him in. My brother starts accusing me of abusing the dog because I told her to stop barking at hallway noises. Then he tries to take the dog back.

I told him if he took the dog, I was done. I was tired of the games. He refused to leave. I called his mom (my aunt) — who lives around the corner — to come get him. She refused. Instead, she called my sister, who lives 45 minutes away, to “handle it.”

Meanwhile, my brother is still in my home, being disrespectful, refusing to leave. I told him to call his mother and he told me to call mine — knowing my mom is dead. Then he smirked, like he’d won something. I snapped. I told him he wasn’t getting anything from me, cursed him out, and told him to get the hell out.

At this point I’m on the verge of a panic attack (I have chronic anxiety disorder), and I ask my boyfriend — who was quietly sitting on the couch witnessing everything — to get him out of my apartment. My boyfriend calmly and respectfully ushers him out. No yelling. No pushing. Nothing aggressive. Just firm and clear.

Here’s where it gets worse: while all this is happening, I’m on the phone with my sister. She starts screaming at my boyfriend for “kicking my brother out of his house.” Then she starts calling my boyfriend all types of slurs — including homophobic ones. She’s on speakerphone, going off, while my brother is still posturing and yelling things like, “When did this become his house?” and “He better watch his mouth.”

Just for clarity — this apartment was my mother’s, but she’s been gone since 2019. The lease is now mine, and my boyfriend helps me cover all the bills. Every utility is in his name and mostly paid by him. Rent too — 80% of it is him. My sister has helped me a few times over the years during hard moments, but we go months without even speaking. So she had no right to act like this isn’t our home or that he’s out of line.

Anyway, once my boyfriend gets my brother out, then my aunt decides to show up. I told her I wouldn’t open the door if she was going to disrespect me. She promised she wouldn’t — so I let her in. She immediately looked at my roommate and friend sitting quietly on the couch and said, “Y’all should leave if you don’t want to see what’s about to happen.” My friend (who knows her from the neighborhood and was honestly scared) left.

Then my aunt starts yelling, threatening me, demanding the dog, and going off on my boyfriend. So I kicked her out, too.

A few minutes later… cops show up. Eight of them. My brother called the police and claimed my boyfriend hit him with a gun. I could’ve screamed. Luckily, the officers were familiar with his antics. They could tell it was BS. We explained what actually happened, and they let us go.

After all this, I tried to call my sister again. I was still shaken up, trying to understand how she could come at my boyfriend like that when we were the ones being attacked and disrespected. Instead, she doubled down. Told me the whole thing was my fault because I “know how my brother is.” Then she told me she was cutting off the entire family because “we’re all too much.”

That crushed me. My sister practically raised me after our mom got sick — but she’s also ghosted me during some of the hardest parts of my life. She’s always taken my mom’s or others’ side, even when I was being mistreated. I finally told her how that’s made me feel all these years… and then I blocked her.

I probably shouldn’t have, but she already said she was done with me — and I needed to protect my peace.

My aunt only showed up to defend her son, not to help me. My brother is completely unsafe to be around emotionally, and I’m not even saying everything he did that day because it’s too triggering. And my sister’s loyalty never seems to lie with me, no matter what.

So… AITA for cutting them all off?

P.S. I haven’t even gotten into my dad yet—that might be a whole other post.