when someone asks me this question, the first thing I always say is, " have you watched finding a family?"
it's about this teenager alex who grows up with a bipolar mother.
Possible trigger:
anyway, she keeps going off her medication and going to hospital, and alex is constantly moved from home to home
eventually he decides it is enough, and he requests for her parenting rights to be terminated.
he finds a family to live with, but they live on a military base, and even though they ask him to come with them when they move, he says he can't- as he wants to stay at his school
eventually he ends up living with a family, and gets a big sister jen
though he's very shy towards the mother, (he thinks she is taking his own mother's place), he realises she is doing the best she can for him
she buys him a christmas present, and during christmas, jen takes alex to see his mother- but they get to the door and alex tells her to go back, because he's not ready to see her.
long story short, alex eventually gets in to university and his mother comes to the first day. she apologizes that she put alex through all what she did, and he tells her that it's not her fault and she couldn't help it
that's the short version. I've tried to mention everything
another movie- that I actually want to see myself is, " the girl he met online", but can't find it anywhere.
their's also bringing ashley home, which is about a girl who suffers from bipolar and drug abuse who gets involved in a wild party and runs away from her family
documentry wise, the only one I can really think of is the secret life of a manic depressive, the steven fry one