Hello,

I'm new and just posted an intro. This is the reason I've found this forum. I apologize for the length of my story.

11 years ago I was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder. I was in and out of hospitals for a few years and lost custody and visitation with my children to my first husband because of it. I had been emotionally abused by him for 7 years and left him because of his abusive behavior towards my children. My illness appeared about a year after leaving him. My family knows that he is abusive and losing contact with my children has been extremely painful for us all.

6 years ago when I woke up sane in the hospital (for the 3rd time) I realized my mental health had to become a priority or I would never see my kids or have a life. At that point it was impossible to deny it had been the stress of abuse then losing my kids kept my mental illness active. So I went to my doctor and asked to work on finding the correct meds and also how to manage my stress.

Since then I've been very lucky and have been symptom free as well as returning to college and getting certified in something I love doing.

During these years my sister has been my closest confidant. Last year she got upset at me out of the blue and we were estranged until I sent her a letter of apology. Recently she did the same thing. We regularly speak for an average of an hour at a time about both of our issues and family stuff. I just found out that she has been telling others in my family that I only care and talk about my problems and don't care about hers. This is not true at all. I have listened to her talk about her problems for hours. And I've never resented it.

We come from a dysfunctional family. My parents were alcoholics when we were young. My sister has always had a little bit of a mean streak as well as being jealous of others. I'm starting to wonder if she doesn't have some borderline personality disorder due to the abuse we experienced as children.

I on the other hand have had years of therapy to work through all of the issues I've had. I would never slander her to others.

Anyway this is extremely upsetting. She was my closest confidant and now my words have been twisted into something negative. Plus, I don't know if other family members believe this fabrication of hers.

I feel as if she is twisting the trauma I did experience into something negative to get herself more pity or attention for her own problems.

At this point she is telling people that she needs time away from me. I'm concerned that her behavior can make me sick again and wonder if I shouldn't just give her all the time in the world and end our relationship.