Thanks for posting this interesting thread! I never knew my father's side of the family. But my mother's side were quite as Nammu described hers being. No one I knew, growing up, ever experienced any overt mental illness that I'm aware of. (I've never done any research on my family tree.) To my knowledge, I'm the first to have the distinction of having been in a psychiatric facility (twice.) My maternal grandmother, during the years I knew her, was a reclusive person, but not in the sense that she let herself (or her home) go. She, as well as her home, were always neat and tidy. She simply preferred to keep to herself. (As do I.) She said being around people made her nervous.