The character in TEH book I'm writing comes from a dysfunctional family. How do I write her?
Okay, her father died when she was a baby and she lives with her five cousins because their family can't support them. When she is 11, her mother remarries a man who seems nice and his daughter is her best friend, but as time goes on and the plot of the story gets worse for the characters, it is revealed this guy is a relapsing alchoholic. Her mom is struggling to take care of seven kids (the girl, her stepsister, and five cousins) and becomes depressed to the point where she can barely function. One of the cousins has anxiety and hypochondria, which I myself have, but I don't know how to write the effect of this on the rest of the kids. (Also, all of this is happening with the impending apocalypse and people are dying and there are corpses piling up outside.) Another of the cousins starts doing drugs and drinking, despite being only 14, and this has a huge effect on the family. Any help in writing this?