My brother and I were talking about my mother, who was very seriously mentally ill ... episodically throughout our childhood, then profoundly so in the last year or two of her life before she finally succeeded in killing herself. He speculated as to what her diagnoses could have been (either schizophrenic or bipolar, she got both dxs at different times.) Then he said, "well, she was just... different." Then he asked what my diagnoses was. I told him "schizoaffective." He paused for a moment and said, "well, you're just... different." And I thought, what, he just said that exact same thing about Mum! What, he thinks I'm going to kill myself?

Okay, I might have been overthinking it, but really... it was his intonation I think, he said it in just the same way he described our mother. Gave me the shivers.

Generally speaking he's very supportive, if not brilliantly informed. He treats me like a normal person, which I appreciate, allows me to babysit his kids, which I love. Just that one thing... I had a glimpse of how he saw Mum and me, and it did freak me out a little.