Hi sky. My brother doesn't live near me so he doesn't see what I go through on a daily basis with my cycle changes and the effect they have on me. He also doesn't know anything about BP. I think it is the 'unknown' that he is afraid of and as I said in a previous post in this thread, we had a MAJOR falling out last year after he violated me. We didn't speak for several months. It's been since that situation that he has been shunning me. That was his first taste of a BP reaction that he has ever seen from me. I guess he was quite shocked because he is not used to me being BP, it only surfaced 5 years ago and as I said he doesn't live near me. We have seen each other in that 5 years but I guess anytime he saw me my cycles were such that I was 'ok', meaning not depressed or hypomanic at the time. I think the disorder scares him. My sister has been trying to educate him as he won't talk with me anymore because he's afraid of what kind of a reaction he might get. I get along with the rest of my family that lives near me with no problem. My mother is really ill now and she has moved in with my brother so now he is getting more exposure to me because my mom and I talk very frequently. I'm just not the sister that he is used to having. I've changed and I guess the change is hard for him to adjust to because he doesn't understand it.

I said I was going to send him an email and try to enlighten him on BP but to be honest it slipped my mind. Memory sure ain't what it used to be. I'll have to make a point of doing that and maybe we can have a better relationship again.

I'm not sure if he thinks he might make me worse, I guess there is definitely that possibility because he sure set me off last year and I guess he's afraid that might happen again.

Yes, it is good that he is asking questions to try to understand. I would prefer that he would ask me directly but maybe I should just be thankful that he cares enough about me that he's at least asking somebody.