I'm definitely convinced that I inherited my mental issues from my mother. She comes from a family rife with addiction problems but I am unaware of anyone else having been diagnosed on her side. I haven't seen her since I was 13, but from the time she divorced my dad (when I was 7) until I was taken out of her care to live with my dad (13) there were a lot of troubling signs. Much of these signs would have been painfully obvious had I any awareness of what they meant.

I know for sure that my mom was diagnosed with post-partum depression, which my psychiatrist said is very common among bipolar. My father and adoptive mother insist that she has Borderline Personality disorder. While I was living with her I knew that she had a painkiller addiction that led her into all sorts of crazy trouble. She would befriend people and then break into their houses to steal pills. My brother insists that she is not bipolar; she just has a pill problem. (She also smoked and drank and insane amount of Coca Cola....I strongly prefer coke over pepsi to this day, lol)

Of the manic symptoms I have seen she has gone through periods of time where she would be awake all night, she would spend her time on crafts. She repainted the house, inside and out, within a short matter of time, including detailed stenciling and some sponge work in most rooms. She maxed out all her credit cards and then weaved stories about her identity being stolen. She tried for years to sue her old company for a mold allergy she claimed to possess and had suffered from in her office building, falsifying symptoms to a doctor to support her case. She jumped from job to job and even would have loads of self-employed money making ideas. She was extremely good at social connections. She'd be flirty to the point I've seen her flash truck drivers on the highway with me in the car.

Sometimes she would get wrathful, angry at me or my brothers and teasing us. She has broken things in her fits.

And yet sometimes she would spend days, weeks, laying on the couch, ignoring everything, and would even talk to me (a mere preteen) about how hellish she believed life was. She would completely shut down. I took care of my baby sister at the time. I sincerely thought that she was sick from her (faux) mold allergy or that she had taken too many drugs.

I didn't think much at all about my mothers weird behaviors at the time. It's insane how children so innocently accept what's around them as normal. It was a couple years ago when it just clicked -- she's got to be 'text book' bipolar!!

I know that I don't have the right to diagnose, but I am sure she's bipolar and I think that's extremely important for me to know. I just don't want to reconnect with her to ask her anything about it, especially if it means giving out information about myself.