Well Howdy-doo Angel. I been gonna meet you for some time now. (apparently I woke up hillbilly this am) I've followed your posting here with all my empathy. BP can be such a rough ride. Your family make up sounds similar to mine. In that not all of the dx's are the same. I was imprecise in my post above to say that one parent or the other is likely bipolar, more accurate would have been to say that some kind of brain chemistyr mental illness was likely there.

I don't mean to go off topic here, and maybe this isn't, but anyway... My brother and my sister and I each have different dx's. Ranging from Borderline personality/psychotic, chronic depression and me, Bi Polar. So the genetic factor jumps out at me to be sure, but obviously it doesn't mean the exact same symptoms manifest in each child. This has caused me to wonder quite a bit about how "related" so many mental illnesses might be. After all, it's not like there is a virus that can be seen under a microscope and identified as the bp virus, or the depression virus etc. Instead, it's all based on what we as patients "say" to our docs. And that all depends on how we feel that day, and to what extent we are able to recall any other days. (for me a real challenge, lol) And even the meds in a way acknowledge the similarities in that so many are prescribed for more than one symptom or illness.

To try to at least close on topic, I was hoping it might be helpful for BC to look at her blood relations to see if there is a pattern of MI. Absent that, seems less likely that she might be. Cripes, as a teenager I could have used such a perspective. I'm hoping it was an empowering or reassuring thing to point up.

I'm sure looking forward to knowing you more Angel, and keep posting.