My mom is a pain in the *** when it comes to medication - she gets all bent out of shape about people being "medicated" and prefers things like conferring with a priest. She's paranoid about everyone being "addicted" because she grew up in an abusive household and has never come to terms with her own issues. I inherited my BP from her, no question, yet she coyly passes it off to my father's side of the family because he has a cousin who was in Vietnam and he struggles with PTSD. My dad is the most even and fair guy I know and has had to suffer through a lot with my mom and her erratic behavior. He's starting to age so my sisters and I are all watching her closely to make sure she doesn't start verbally abusing him like she did to us. My sisters are very supportive of me in general although my brothers-in-law think there's nothing wrong with me........they're all high achievers, of course.

My mom made a big deal about me nodding off when she visited last but that's a side effect of Depakote. Even though I'm under the care of a doctor, and the medication works quite well with few side effects, she still looks at me as "doped up" even though Depakote isn't a narcotic.