Family History?

As I am working on a family tree I was wondering if people here have found family histories of mental illness.

If so, what did you find? How far back have you gone? Where you able to find any specific information?

I am bipolar type 2, but my father is most certainly an undiagnosed bipolar type 1, and his birth mother (he was adopted) seems to possibly have been commited to a mental hospital (maybe Graystone in New Jersey) around 1940. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of info other than she died in 1943. Possibly while still there.

Has anyone tried doing research in this area?

To add to the fun, I recently obtained a copy of my mother's father's adoption paperwork, and it stated that his mother was "insane" and that the father was unable to care for him due to being an alcoholic. I'm not quite sure what qualified as "insane" in 1906. From what I can tell she seems to have later remarried and lived a fair amount of time after.

My mother was Bipolar type 1 and Schizoaffective Disorder and I suspect my brother was Major Depression and Aspergers.. I'm Bipolar type 2. We suspected my grandmother (mom's mom) was Bipolar or depressed. My father's sister was diagnosed with Major Depression as a teenager.

I'm just surprised I didn't have a more severe episode earlier in my life (I'm 35).

My mother has schizophrenia, my aunt has schizophrenia and my cousin has schizophrenia and numerous aunts and uncles suffer from bipolar disorder

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My daughter has latent schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder. My sister has gone through a lot of diagnoses, latest (and probably best) paranoid schizophrenia and BPD. My brother has MDD. My parents very obviously have mental and mood issues, but they are undiagnosed as neither believe it's nothing you can't pray away. My dad's grandmother was in and out of psych wards and his grandfather as "criminally insane," but they won't say much about it. I know their son ( my dad's dad) was a ward of the state for a while because she was deemed unfit and of course the dad was in psych jail.

I have Zero history of mental illness in my family. I have BP I . My Daughter also has BP I, her Fathers side of the family also has Zero history of any mental illness.

Somethings in life just can't be explained.

Aside from anxiety and my grandfather drinking a lot...theres zero history in my family of mental illness. Of course, my grandfather is adopted so there might be something on that side, who knows.

Right now? Im the black sheep. I have bipolar but not sure which one.

In 1906 a father, brother or son could commit a woman for almost any reason. If a woman became pregnant even though rape she could be labeled insane. A woman talking back to her male "superior " could be seen as insane for not be able to accept her position in life, ie being uppity. If I remember right the lower classes usually didn't get put away unless they were clearly removed from reality. But a lot of it was subjective and depended on where you lived. It's rely hard to know.

I suspect there was MI in the family but people didn't talk about it or get help. I have an aunt who is now labeled bipolar but when growing up no one talked about it except in whispers. Her behavior was ignored. I've lots of cousins who are also BP, my daughter and some of my cousins children are BP and there's a few uncles and aunts with alcohol problems that might have been self medication.

There is I believe, but no one talks about it.

My mom is sure her mother had bipolar, very similar to mine although she also used drugs which I don't. My father is nearly certainly undiagnosed bipolar and probably a few other diagnoses in the personality disorder realm. I have a brother with Asperger's. My sister has been treated for depression as has my brother and mother and father and paternal grandmother. My paternal grandfather would have some diagnosis now as would his father; both were cruel, horrible men (sociopathic?). I think my paternal great-grandfather had depression and paternal great-grandmother also had bizarre behaviors and general cruelness. Reading my grandmother's account of how she was abused in the 6 years she was in her mother's care made me cry a few years ago. That abuse led her to marry an abuser and the pattern has continued to this generation where I think nearly everyone has avoided it. I have one cousin with significant psych issues he calls "OCD" and which I suspect are more like NPD and another cousin who may share the bipolar but hasn't been treated so hasn't been diagnosed. So the one side of the family is full of problems and the other has bipolar too so I think it would be surprising if nobody was bipolar of my siblings and I. At least that sort of makes me feel better somehow.

There's a book called 10 days in a madhouse by Nellie Bly, an investigative reporter in the last 1800s who faked her way into a NYC insane asylum and then acted completely normally until rescued by the newspaper she was working for. It is absolutely fascinating how easy it was for her to be sent there for the rest of her life and what the conditions were like there and how nobody would consider she was sane when she was no longer acting like anything was wrong at all after she was admitted. I have read it a few times and each time been amazed and very thankful to live now.

It's a great book isn't it!

Can you imagine being brave enough to do that? I mean, I wouldn't do that to go into a psych hospital NOW assuming I didn't need to be IP at times.

Now days I think the scary part of being hospitalized is the drugs.

[I[/B][/I]Actually it didn't sound as bad as some of the accounts Ive read from the 1950's. The insulin treatments, cold water therapy, high voltage shock....or the state hospital in the 1900s that pulled people's teeth as a cure, if that didn't work removed tonsils, stomach and intestines, that doctor was crazy!

The treatment immigrants got at ellis island sound so humanitarian compared to the 1950's. The doctor that started the unit there was a saint but I always wondered what happened to them when they were sent back.

I worked with some people who had been state hospital patients in the 50s. The effects of those treatments was pretty horrible. Some of them seemed to have been treated with awful things (the one I'm thinking of was lots of high-dose ECT) for so long that it made their brains not susceptible to modern meds. Some of them had really complicated histories and nothing really helped them. Many of those people could be completely calm and sweet one second and attacking a visitor the next. Their brains mis-fired so badly. Where I worked had been providing care between state hospital and group home level for 30 years so lots of our patients had been there 30 years and still weren't stabilized on meds. I was there just a few years after the final lobotomy patient. One day we were digging for a restraint in a storeroom because restraints were something I had to do and found a straightjacket, left over from the early days at that place. Apparently in the heyday there was such a waiting list that when someone died the body was put in a morgue and the bed was filled immediately. It really wasn't much less when I was there because we took violent patients with dementia and nobody else did. It was a whole different world than I've experienced as a patient myself and I'm so grateful for that perspective.

Wow, a lot of remarkable history represented within our community.

My mother recently told me that depression runs a yard deep in our family, but in my experience, people miss the manic times when I'm functional. I suspect it wasn't all pure depression as both my sister and I have been diagnosed bipolar and 5 people in our extended family going back to a great aunt committed suicide.

I'm thankful to live now too.

I've always wondered this. When I was younger, I was always wondering, why me?? But since mental illness is one of those things that is taboo for come cultures and some families, I'm not sure. Since my parents split when I was young, I don't really know my dad's side too well to say anything. And as far as I know on my mom's side of the family, I am unaware of any mental illnesses on that side either. But I did find out not too long ago that my grandmother's younger brother was "sent away" for some reason. But it was never discussed. Since this was back in the 1920-1930ish era, no one talked about it. At any rate, I can say my mom has some depression issues and my dad has some substance abuse issues, and that's all I can confirm from just being their daughter.

my dad has been hospitalized numerous times for depression. his mom was also hospitalized for depression and received ECT (said it worked like a charm!). no one has been diagnosed with bipolar, though i could see them both having bp 2.

my dad for example has had periods of bizarre drug use (like methadone, recreationally) and heavy drinking - to the point he gets into fights and thrown out of places. he has also had periods of extremely obsessive day-trading - eg gambling (made and lost a million dollars...which sounds crazy but it's true!), and excessive spending (on things ranging from gold to electronics), often related to conspiracy theories or grandiose "master plans". In general he is very intense and very very irritable. He gets away with it all partly, I think, because he's an artist.

Runs pretty strong in my family as well as alcoholism. Aunt killed herself. Mom depression pretty bad... Dad was an alcoholic for some time... My brother is also diagnosed bipolar

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I've been doing some geniology. I recently found out my paternal great great grandfather was institutionalized. I'd like to know what for, but I doubt I have access to those records. No one has been diagnosed, but I think my moms twin brother is bipolar. My mom is a hoarder and I'm sure depression as well, and my paternal grandmother was also a hoarder. My maternal grandmother had OCD, not diagnosed though. My sister has depression and ADHD. I'm not having children due to the genetic link of the BP and OCD. I'm scared though that if my sister has children someday it will be passed onto them.