My family did not get how sick I was untill I had a massive panick attack the morning before my brothers 40th birthday. Was to be a big party, and I freaked out. After that they have somehow taken it a bit more seriously. Even in a family like mine, with several people suffering from bipolar, a lot of the other family-members really don`t get it. But maybe one has to live it to know it fully. I keep a lot of my symptoms secret from my family. I live almost three hours from them, so it is not so hard to do.