I suspect my dad had bipolar. His sister does and is living with it now. His aunt did before she died. I think my grandfather (brother to the aunt) had some MH issues, or else he was just the unwitting cause of them.

My dad didn't quite do the hot/cold thing you're describing. I don't remember him being depressed a lot - but he bought a sports car on a whim, had affairs (I found out after he died), displayed a lot of the hypo markers of grandiosity, had a million interests, spent tons of money on many of them, and loved to drink/party. I'm not sure if I would have known at the time if he had depression; he was away from home a lot with work (and, apparently, affairs). He died in a plane accident; there was never a cause discovered. It was pretty convenient, in terms of none of our family being around at the time. As an adult, I wonder if he committed suicide in that way. I'll never know, I guess.

I was 15 when he died. The rest of my family has more complete memories of him. He was angry and overbearing with my oldest brother. I don't really know how he related to my middle brother. I know he fought with my mom, but he also went to counseling with her to try to make their relationship better. It's weird, because I feel like each of us knew a different person in a way, because his relationship with each of us was so different. In the end, I really only have my memories of him, and those have holes anyway.

I'm sorry for the childhood you had, wondering which mom you were going to deal with that day. That's one of my biggest fears as a mom myself - wondering how severely my BP is impacting my kids. I work really hard to make not take out my MI on them; sometimes I fail, and I hate it. We do talk openly about my mood, though, and when I'm reacting in ways that aren't reasonable - and my struggle with that. I hope to God that my kids know the mom that is rational, caring, nurturing, and understanding is the one I want for them all the time! And I hope they know, now and when they're older, that the other mom (who sometimes overreacts or can't get out of bed to make a decent breakfast) is someone I wish wasn't real, too.