Did/Do you get support from your family?

Only from my brother, who is across the country, but we text every day and I can always call him no matter what. He has a very rare and terminal heart condition and I don't know what I'll do when he passes away. Parents and two of my siblings are deceased, and one I haven't seen in years.

My wife (now ex) wouldn't even pick me up when I discharged from ip. She just didn't believe I really had anything wrong with me.

Fortunately I have one good friend who is very supportive and lives close by. He can relate to my BP because he's seen what his brother has gone through with BP.

My wife and kids know, of course, but i really don't get support. My wife is pissed about when I was in denial and she had to put up with me unmedicated. She doesn't really like to talk about what is going on with me. My oldest is pretty supportive but he is not around much.

I have my husband, daughter and some friends support , that’s enough for me

just an update, I told my parents today...they don't really understand but asked me how they can help. they can't really help of course but at least now they know.
most of my support comes from my friends, i have three or four who know my diagnosis and help when i need support.

Good on you for being honest with your parents. I know it’s not easy.

Never had a big family. I was an only child though I have a half-brother and half-sister much older than me and two nieces by the half-sister.

My mom is a high functioning narcissist and a binge drinker. She liked to helicopter in and apply "discipline" from time to time early in my life. Then my parents got divorced when I was 13, my dad moved away and I'd started to get into very tame trouble. NOW my mom was involved - locks on the windows, cops in my room "involved." She was responsible for my only IP the day I got beaten in middle school and I ended up at my dad's at 15 with a mild head injury. We did interact later until she retired and turned the narc lazers on me, she's dead to me now.

My dad was very old (hence the half-siblings I didn't grow up with as they were already adults) and he had zero understanding and was highly unsupportive when I ended up with him at 15. He ended up kicking me out at 17, again the trouble I was getting into was so minor and at this point mostly caused by lack of support. I was out partying but I largely kept other kids out of worse trouble. At one point in the many many places I lived in that town I was in a Ford Escort in his driveway and he would give me mail through the half inch at the top where the window was stuck.

I could relate to his crazy more than my mom's, so we slowly buried the hatchet (by me accepting his failure and not expecting any apologies) as he got older and more infirm. Then as he slipped into Alzheimers my half-sister was stealing and there was a major fight. It triggered the huge low I'm in now. I'd been taking over his affairs and getting him care but I dropped off the face of the earth, she essentially kidnapped him (long story), he died last Xmas and I didn't see him for umm like 2 years because she would not let him go home.

My half-brother is the older of his other kids. He's been cruising on the borderline of some serious issues his whole life, is nomadic, into guns, believes in chemtrails and whatnot. Thinks meds are mind control or similar. We used to joke that he was the unabomber until the real one got caught. He and I don't really talk.

My half-sister is literally the most toxic person I've ever dealt with in my entire life. She defies all categorization but is somewhere on the edge of antisocial personality disorder with near zero emotional intelligence or empathy of any kind, zero sense of shame or guilt, and I do mean absolutely ZERO. She does experience fear in major events (earthquakes) and does not like violence though, thank god. She is also an animal hoarder and incredibly chaotic. Her place is bad, rats in the walls bad, waterfowl next to the stove bad, life-threatening disease bad. We don't talk and the instant my nieces are out of her sway she will be dead to me for good.

I have one niece by her who is my only biological family who is part of my true family. I love her so much and she faces absolutely brutal depression. My sister is totally incapable of understanding and the horrible house she keeps is actively hostile to any recovery, so decades have been wasted. My primary goal in getting my **** together from my 5 year low is to give my niece an option to get out before she kills herself.

My younger niece I barely know and I alienated her with bad behavior when I got into a mixed episode walking into Mordor at my sister's place after our dad died. I guess we'll see what happens, she's well aware her mom is absolutely bat**** lunatic crazy, and that I'm less so. She didn't get out unscathed but had an option to leave my sister's insane ****hole so she took it. I hope to patch things up with her soon.

My dad had 2 brothers, one was a wild boy and a drinker but a very successful artist who died right after my parents' divorce. The other was profoundly mentally retarded but they gave him crayons at 60 years old and he started drawing fascinating geometric patterns, one of which is a mural somewhere at a public pool.

Crazy runs strong in my family and the further out you go digging up stories in the family tree, nearly everybody had serious issues. I'm just glad for the strong artistic streak that came down my dad's side. Along with his brothers in the visual arts, he and I are/were both serious music lovers though we did not perform (I want to learn the mandolin but have been too depressed).

So in my usual wall of text, no, they do not support me, quite the opposite in fact. They've been dragging me down for the most part since I was born. There are some nuances but that's what it adds up to. I know my older niece will be wonderful, she is a healer by nature, but she's so far down the hole she's barely capable of communicating at this point.

My family is dysfunctional and when I need them they sometimes help if they want. My mother is bipolar but not diagnosed and does not take any medication. It was hell living with her although I love her. It took me years to realize she is ill too. I forgave her for her past mistreatment of me. My father is always working and is still working. My brother is emotionally disturbed. My family was only supportive when I was doing well. But, when I became homeless and hospitalized repeatedly, my father and brother wanted to disown me. My mother took me back home and for this I am grateful. Now I am alone again in a foreign country but am surviving. I depend mostly on myself although I see a doctor who gives me my medication once every three months. I have no support here. I am all alone. My family isolated themselves so my contact with other relatives has been cut off. I am truly alone but not lonely. I am fine by myself. I am used to being alone. Life is not bad. Of course, I wish I could have had a supportive typical family. But, I was not blessed with one. I don't have much anger about it. Life could be worse. I feel grateful for what I have- my medication, my physical health, my somewhat stable mind, a place to live, food to eat, etc. I don't have much but it is more than what I can ask for. Life is not bad for me now. I am happy now after years of having anguish and misery. I have no complaints. I am who I am. I accept myself now and am at peace.

I always get support from my family. I am a very lucky person.

my extended family is pretty ignorant but they are kind to me. they could google bipolar and would understand more of what i'm dealing with. oh well...maybe sometime.

That's exactly what I said to one of my sisters who has no clue. I told her there's a magical thing called google
In addition perhaps she could speak to her sister who's worked in mental health for over 20yrs, speak to her mum (who's worked in healthcare) or even me (was in healthcare for 25yrs and nothing's wrong with my long term memory)

Thank you! it wasn't always this way. My mom and I were always very close. She passed away 2 years before I was diagnosed. My sisters and I not so much. They tried but I was very hard to get along with before I was medicated. Lol. I'm the youngest of 8! Now that I'm on the appropriate meds I see how much they have always tried to help. I love my family very much!

I'm truly sorry you don't have a better relationship with your sisters. Maybe you will one day.

My Mom is the most supportive person to me. So are my sisters. It was difficult for them to understand mental illness at first. My younger sister tells me she understands me more from the time when I first became ill. They understand now that you can`t just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and just get better.They fully understand that it is an illness.

As a kid, I did. I actually got a lot of support from my family as a kid, though a lot of it was of the helicoptering type variety. Though, still there was a lot of support as a kid. As an adult, not really. With regard to my work, yes. But pretty much everything else, my family has protested, attacked, and tried to manipulate me into changing. They haven't really done this lately, but I'm sure they would love to do it again....... but just have written me off as a "lost cause" more or less. Or are just waiting for another good opportunity to abuse yet again. In general, as an adult, my family has been more of a struggle for me to deal with than any sort of source of support. And it's been a very difficult struggle. As of late, they haven't really seemed to do anything to try to change me and attack who I am, but I probably would be quite foolish to get suckered back into having any sort of sense of trust again....... as the cycle has repeated itself before.

Given some of the crazy shite I did over the years, my family has been amazingly supportive. While the road can sometimes be a little rocky, I'm grateful they stuck with me. My parents were not supportive when I was self-medicating with alcohol; that ball was in my court. It's my responsibility to control the things I can control. I've done that for years now & it's made a world of difference. As for the things I have limited control over (my MI) my entire family has been tremendously supportive. I know I'm fortunate in that respect.

Over the years I've had to learn to be my own source of support and not to expect any from those around me.

My wife is very standoffish about my mental health. Her way of "supporting" me when I'm hypo or depressed is to leave me alone. My mum knows about my BP and is very caring but doesn't really know what to do. My dad doesn't know I have BP. I have no sibs. The most supportive person I have is my 10-year-old son, which I recognize is super unhealthy for him to be in that spot so I put on a game face for him.

Thus, I'm left with me. I have become very matter-of-fact with others about my needs. If my wife gets pissed b/c I spent money b/c I was hypo I'm not apologetic about it. Similarly, if I'm depressed and I only have enough energy to sit on the couch then that's what I do.

Only from my sons. A little from my ex-H. None from FOO.

I never did get any support from my family- even before diagnoses.

bad, bad people.. they really were

are, I mean.

I always talk about them like they were, because we litirally don't get involved with one another

Absolutely

My family has gotten better at supporting me over the years but nobody visits me while I'm hospitalized. Which kinda bums me out because everybody else usually has visitors every day or so. But I never did/do. My mom is the one who supports me the most now, but I remember when I first got diagnosed she didn't at all.

My husband and my daughter do. The rest of my family is either dead or distant.

My wife is an angel. My mom used to scream at me to snap out of it one day and then be sorry the next day, after the damage was done. But she retired and moved out of US. She had some form of MI too. I never quite figured this out and she wouldn't admit anything.

I have a remote, internet based relationship (the other side of the planet) with my younger brother. He doesn't get it either: "come here for a few beers and you'll be out of it in no time".

As if there was was no beer in USA...

My parents and 3 siblings live in a small community where we were all raised. I left for 30 years to go to college and pursue a successful professional career. I moved back 9 years ago after PTSD DX, thinking the support of family and life long friends would be a healthy & healing environment. Unfortunately, my parents & siblings do not believe in "mental illness". They choose to ignore me and my struggles as if that will make the problem go away. Told me I was "dwelling in my diagnosis" and "couldn't believe you have done this to yourself". The amount of negativity from my family has resulted in me severing ties with them. It is very painful, but I am in control of the toxic relationships in my family. I wish I had a loving and caring family support system......but I don't.

I had no idea that this thread was bumped up a while after I started it. I regret I must not have been around when some of the later responses were posted. I'm sorry! Know that I have read the remaining posts just now.

KYWoman, I'm sorry you've been met with more negativity than support.

Less than one week ago I had a very significant talk with my brother and I was extremely touched by some sweet supportive things he said. I had earlier mentioned that he had been supportive in the past, but at some points I got the feeling that he didn't understand why my disability has lasted so long. Sometimes he and my dad spout out stuff like "Leaches on society". I'm not sure if they necessarily included me in those nasty statements, but really I know they did include more than plenty of people that should never be called that. We differ in our political beliefs. Those are subjects I try to avoid with them because they get so angry that it stresses me out, but at the same time I do want them to be more understanding of people who have legitimate struggles.

My husband is blissfully clueless. I have explained until I’m blue in the face. His support is quiet. I guess it works for me. I talk to my mom occasionally. She doesn’t understand but I think she sympathizes with me like moms are supposed to do.