Infertility / adoption

Anyone out there suffer from infertility as I do? Has anyone adopted a child in spite of their depression / bipolar? Just wondering if it's possible and what the process is like.

Many thanks

I'm curious too. I have no idea about my fertility, but I'm convinced there is a strong genetic component to my disease and I don't want to pass it on.

We have 2 adopted sons that we adopted as newborns. It's been a while ago; they are 20 and 17 years old now.

At the time when they were placed with us, I didn't understand that I had depression/anxiety/avoidant personality and was only dx'd with this by a professional about 4-5 years ago.

We made contact with a private social worker who specialized in adoptions. He then gave our names to the biological parents during pregnancy and we were selected from a pool of couples. We met both birth mothers, but have not maintained contact with them.

I often think of the birth mothers and how hard it must have been for them to trust us and to allow us this amazing responsibility.

With adoption, adoptive parents have to really brace themselves for the possibility that the birth mother (or father) could change their mind before the adoption is finalized. It's a very emotional process - at least it was for us.

I'm not sure if this is the information you are looking for, but it's a little of our experience.

Through therapy I have learned about myself more and realize that for years I lived through my kids. They were (and still are) what I lived for. Being a perfectionist myself, I was driven to help them succeed and I think my first really serious bought of depression was when my oldest son (with bipolar disorder) hit a period of instability. Accepting that he would never be like other "normal" kids was very difficult for me to do.

Sorry this is so long.