View Single Post
 
Old Feb 03, 2016, 03:10 PM
BlueInanna's Avatar
BlueInanna BlueInanna is offline
Grand Magnate
 
Member Since: Dec 2011
Location: Colorado
Posts: 4,624
BP is biological, but I think social environment can definitely hugely influence coping skills, self esteem, resilience, family support. Like Pearl says above, I think abuse would absolutely stir up symptoms/trigger episodes.
I was not abused, except for a few rare occasions subject to dad's rage and mom's withdrawn depression. It seems really minor compared to what so many go through.
But everything was very hush-hush about dad's mood swings, random alcohol binges & random cheating on mom. He was a very high functioning bipolar, and i'm not sure he was ever officially diagnosed.
But that hush-hush environment played a huge part in my sister and I both not getting help sooner. And that was bad for my self-esteem, like I just felt horrible and was supposed to stay contained and keep it a secret.

You can heal from it, the therapist will help get to the bottom of it all.

Re-reading your question - does either cases cause one to not grow up in certain aspects? Mentally, emotionally, etc?

If you're asking about not growing up, like not maturing as well as other "regular" people may seem? I think so for sure. If your needs weren't met as a child, there are a lot of gaps to fill. I'm not a therapist, she would know best. But if your needs weren't met, you were running in survival mode & had to teach yourself things that you really needed a caring role model to teach. This is very deep, I hope it's not totally triggering. Work with your therapist, they will help you. You can heal, you can relearn coping skills. This group here is really supportive kind people, many have been through what you're going through. Welcome and hugs
Hugs from:
lacerta
Thanks for this!
TryingToMoveForward