My mother is bipolar and unmedicated. I can't tell you what knowing that would have meant to me as a child. Instead I thought everything that happened with her was my fault. Also because she never got help or admitted anything I didn't find out that I was bipolar until I was in my 20's- early 30's. All I knew was that I was just like my granny and my mom. Finding out was such an eyeopener and I was so angry that I could have gotten help when I was a teen but I literally thought that's just how all the women in our family are.

I don't have kids because I won't take a chance of being like my mom. However; the brunt of raising my brother did fall on me. Granted I didn't know that I was bipolar but I still talked with him when he was 7-8 and told him there was something wrong with me. I didn't know what but that when sissy got sad or mad or anything it had nothing to do with him and to ignore me.

He's 28 now and we've talked about it several times and he's told me that it meant a lot that I shared with him. That whenever I had a mood swing he thought he had done something to cause it and me explaining that it was not his fault; that it was just something wrong with me, helped him a ton.