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Aug 24, 2009, 09:43 PM
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Member Since: Jul 2009
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA
Posts: 2,779
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I am one of four kids and because of family alcohol abuse, we were not a close family. We kids never were close as children and have not been close as adults.
My mother died a year and a half ago and since then, my only sister and I have begun communicating more and sharing more of our lives. Most has been by telephone because we live 1400 miles apart. None of my family members were ever a part of my struggle with bipolar and so now this is all new to them and to her.
Last Christmas, she and her husband came to Phoenix for the holidays because his sister also lives in this area only in another distant suburb and I did get to spend some time (actually very little) with my sister. While she was here, she gave me a book. She said she was reading it and she happened to have two copies and thought I would find it interesting. The title was "You Are Your Choices".
It left me puzzled. I didn't know what to think. I appreciated her thoughtfulness on the one hand but couldn't quite figure out how she would end up with two copies of the same book???? To be honest, I wondered if she bought it for me. Also, I wondered if she understands so little about depression that she has no idea that the ability to make choices is one of the first things that goes haywire when depression sets in and making bad choices is one of the side effects of mental illness.
Truthfully, I am grateful to begin this new level of communication and this new relationship with my sister. But it seems that it is possible that if the time ever comes that I find myself trying to explain mental illness to the Vice-Chancellor of a major university (my sister's job), I might be in over my head. After all, in light of what it took for her to achieve that position, she just simply might not "get it". 
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 Vickie
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