[atheosnick]

Does anyone here have another family member, or a running trend of Bi-polar in the family?

[Victoria'smom]

Yes I come from a long line of dx'd and un-dx'd Mental illness.

[üheksateist]

Yes.
At least 4 generations of bipolarity on my mother's side (only women). Possibly more, but this is for (pretty) sure, as they all have been/were diagnosed.

Think there's some scientific proof to bipolarity running in genes (not that it's the only cause, but still)...

[BipolaRNurse]

Lots of alcohol abuse and 'undiagnosed' mental illness run in my family; my sister is dysthymic (chronic low-grade depression); my older son and I are the only officially diagnosed bipolars. But I'd be willing to bet that my mother was, and my great-grandmother might have been as well.

[hamster-bamster]

I do, from the maternal side.

[wing]

Yep, and many studies conclude that if there is mental illness in the family, it makes other family members more likely to get it.

[spoiltmom]

Not really but I am bipolar. 2 of my 3 kids have ADHD. It's always fun times at my house.

My cousin has it and I'm pretty darn sure so does my mom.

[Trippin2.0]

In this case I'm an 'only child' huge family, and I'm 1 of a kind... guess I'm evolved?

[Bipolar mom]

I am fairly certain on both my maternal and paternal sides there is undiagnosed down the line... My mother is most definitely undiagnosed bp or some other mood disorder... My fathers father was not diagnosed till he was close to 75. Myself and my cousin on my mothers side have been diagnosed bp2 and a cousin on my fathers side has bp1. There's also add, anxiety, ect in my family.

I come from a long history of undiagnosed mental illness. I am the first to actually seek any form of help at all in generations of idiots.

[usbusi]

A cousin on my mother's side had it. He ended up killing himself unfortunately. Out of six children I'm the only one with BP.

[bunnifoo]

Not bipolar disorder per se, I think I have a second cousin who has bipolar disorder. But a long history of depression, anxiety, and suspected (but not diagnosed) mental illness on both sides of my family.

Basically my pdoc put it "You didn't have a chance in hell with that gene pool."

My brother struggles with depression but usually it only flares up during stressful situations and mostly he handles it without medication.

[bpinOk]

Yeah diagnosed and undiagnosed bipolar, depression and alcohol abuse

[atheosnick]

Thank you guys so much for all the replies and information. My mother and her side of the family all have symptoms of bi-polar and few are diagnosed. My dads side of the family is just too self righteous to admit any problem with themselves and plus "god heals them" and "i just have a demon inside me that i need to pray away"

***** Them.

Sorry.

Thanks guys.

[Moreta]

There's a lot of mental illness on both sides of my family and a lot of addiction problems. So I got both....oh joy.

[SamuelAdams1313]

Uncle is bi-polar on my father's side and I believe my grandpa on mother's side was too. OCD and ADD runs in family also

[cybermember]

Bipolar mother, siblings, and myself with also psychosis. Lots of sex, lots of drugs/alcohol, and some rock & roll. Oh and let's not forget the spending sprees!

[browneyed tx girl]

...and what you don't inherit, you are taught! For not being raised by my mother in residence, I sure am a lot like her... Then there is the "addictive personality" traits my siblings and I all share-from both parents. Alcohol or drugs. Then to make things more difficult, my mother was adopted. There is no information to use there. My father is an only child of an only child and we don't know who his father is (or any of that history). Not knowing what makes you "tick" or why you are "this way" has been frustrating for us and many medical professionals.

[Odee]

I'm definitely convinced that I inherited my mental issues from my mother. She comes from a family rife with addiction problems but I am unaware of anyone else having been diagnosed on her side. I haven't seen her since I was 13, but from the time she divorced my dad (when I was 7) until I was taken out of her care to live with my dad (13) there were a lot of troubling signs. Much of these signs would have been painfully obvious had I any awareness of what they meant.

I know for sure that my mom was diagnosed with post-partum depression, which my psychiatrist said is very common among bipolar. My father and adoptive mother insist that she has Borderline Personality disorder. While I was living with her I knew that she had a painkiller addiction that led her into all sorts of crazy trouble. She would befriend people and then break into their houses to steal pills. My brother insists that she is not bipolar; she just has a pill problem. (She also smoked and drank and insane amount of Coca Cola....I strongly prefer coke over pepsi to this day, lol)

Of the manic symptoms I have seen she has gone through periods of time where she would be awake all night, she would spend her time on crafts. She repainted the house, inside and out, within a short matter of time, including detailed stenciling and some sponge work in most rooms. She maxed out all her credit cards and then weaved stories about her identity being stolen. She tried for years to sue her old company for a mold allergy she claimed to possess and had suffered from in her office building, falsifying symptoms to a doctor to support her case. She jumped from job to job and even would have loads of self-employed money making ideas. She was extremely good at social connections. She'd be flirty to the point I've seen her flash truck drivers on the highway with me in the car.

Sometimes she would get wrathful, angry at me or my brothers and teasing us. She has broken things in her fits.

And yet sometimes she would spend days, weeks, laying on the couch, ignoring everything, and would even talk to me (a mere preteen) about how hellish she believed life was. She would completely shut down. I took care of my baby sister at the time. I sincerely thought that she was sick from her (faux) mold allergy or that she had taken too many drugs.

I didn't think much at all about my mothers weird behaviors at the time. It's insane how children so innocently accept what's around them as normal. It was a couple years ago when it just clicked -- she's got to be 'text book' bipolar!!

I know that I don't have the right to diagnose, but I am sure she's bipolar and I think that's extremely important for me to know. I just don't want to reconnect with her to ask her anything about it, especially if it means giving out information about myself.

[hamster-bamster]

Odee, from your most detailed and colorful account she does seem textbook bipolar with addictions "to boot".

[newtus]

i know of one relative that has schizophrenia.

dont know if they are blood relatives.

im extremely convinced both my sides are severely underdiganosed OR im being lied to. im told on both sides that either they dont know if theres MI or theres none. shame shame shame on lying to me like that because my parents themselves have huge issues.

[~Christina]

No family history that I am aware of. I am Bipolar I and my 21 year old daughter was diagnosed 2 years ago Bipolar I.
I no longer feel guilty about this. My daughter has made it very clear that she would not change anything even if she could.