Quote:
Originally Posted by BirdDancer
Hi Patient 2. I'm sorry your mother has to battle cancer. I can certainly understand how stressful that must be for all in your family. That's great that you have survived that horrible disease. Your recovery can certainly provide great hope to your mom.
I know that such a horrible stress as illness in the family can cause mania. My mother's death exacerbated mine. My father's recent illness has triggered a bit for me, as well.
I feel for your brother, but imagine that adds extra stress for all of you. You say you have two sisters. Is it possible that you and your sisters can get together and have a bit of an intervention, of sorts, with your brother? You all should have a say in helping your mom. If you all know he's manic, it would surely be good to enlighten him about that fact, if he's lacking insight. Does he tend to take over things even when not manic? Personalities play a big part in family rifts, despite bipolar disorder.
My sister has bipolar type 2 and I have bipolar type 1. My youngest nephew had Bipolar NOS. It's highly likely that my father has bipolar disorder, too.
I'm almost 7 years younger than my sister. We had some very minor clashes growing up, but I sort of think they were run of the mill sibling clashes. I do know that her bipolar anger was often more physical, while mine was more verbal. She could definitely get to the point of lifting a chair in the air and slamming it down onto my brother's head. He didn't/doesn't have bipolar disorder, but was an "enfant terrible".
I'm not sure that bipolar type really matters so much. We all can get triggered. We all have different tipping points. We all have different base personalities and temperaments. Certainly manic overdrive amplifies these things.
|
My mother passed away on June 15 in hospice at home. My bipolar brother was alone with her when she started showing signs of impending death. He sent me a frantic email that said if I wanted to see our mother again I had better come to town (I live 4 hours away). He could have called our older sister who lives just 5 minutes away except they recently had a nasty fight the last time they were with her. So nasty that my sister called the police! He sent me another email shortly after the first one in which he described how she had soiled on him. He was angry and put her back in bed after cleaning her up. The third and last email he said she had passed away. He did not call 911 because she has a DNR so he called the hospice. When I came into town for the funeral, I learned that he blamed our sister for giving her too much morphine, which is a lie. He also claimed that our sister was mentally ill and unstable, which is also a lie. She became the scapegoat and my younger sister sided with our brother. I sided with our older sister. Our family (what we have left) has been torn apart. I have had no contact with him since then and limited contact with our younger sister. Instead of grieving for my mother's death, I find myself caught up in the family conflict. I am considering going into therapy to help me cope with this situation.