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my dad takes lithium and is diagnosed as bi-polar. he also has never acted like the people being described in the posts above. he has never, to my knowledge, been in a mental ward. he doesn't talk to me about it much, but says that the medication saved his marriage and probably his life. I don't want to go into details because I want to respect his privacy. I do believe he is bi-polar. and i think the disease can manifest itself in a wide range of behaviors/emotions/etc.. etc..

i think more people are being diagnosed as bi-polar because they used to be diagnosed as crazy/ass holes/psychos/depressed. now there is just a more specific diagnosis.

the disease most likely does have some kind of hereditary link.


it is sometimes very scary living life wondering if one day you will start having serious mental problems. my dad is bi-polar. i have two grandparents who were alcoholics. and an aunt who commited suicide after a mental breakdown. she was most likely schizophrenic.

i was severely depressed in my late teens. I am not bi-polar but it can be a scary thing to think about sometimes.

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My family has had some problems in the past that have made me and at least one of my brothers admit to each other that we worry about the same thing. It's probably largely a waste of time, though, unless taken as a gentle reminder to live the best we can. If something happens, then it happens. Worrying about it all one's life, or closing down the possibilities of one's life in a fear-response, isn't going to help anything or decide anything one way or another. But merely being conscious of what to watch for gives us the best chance at controlling negative possibilities. So we probably have a better shot at dealing with things well than did the people who made us wonder if we'd ever have anything to deal with. We can't do anything about the fear, so maybe we should just say, Hey, thanks for the heads up!