Briefly:

1st suicide attempt at 15. No psychiatric help given as my mother was bipolar & alcoholic & in & out of mental institutions & was the focus at this point. In fact, my father was very ANGRY at me for bothering him as I was at a boarding school & they said he had to take me out for 2 weeks.

So began to drink heavily, use cocaine when boyfriends would provide it, got onto speed...more overdoses. School kicked me out saying I needed extensive psychological help; by this time my mother had committed suicide by asphyxiating herself with a plastic bag over her head; my father hired a housekeeper to look after us kids & he moved onto his yacht with his girlfriend.

So more of the same. Ended up with numerous erroneous dxes & put on many different medications & saw many therapists as I sought help on my own in my 20's after getting married. Finally at the age of 45 I was properly dxed as bipolar 1, had a year of trial & error to get the right combo of meds (6 of them), doing indiv. therapy, DBT, was stable for 5 years, had last overdose 2 years ago... Progress I guess. I've lived longer than my mother, at least.