Bridget
A family is diagnosed

I lived all my life with what has now been diagnosed as bipolar disorder. I went through my whole life thinking that I must be an alien or something because I never fit in. I got pregnant when I was 15 so I could get out of my mother’s house. She and everyone else in my family had terrible fits that I thought were normal.

When I got admitted to a psychiatric ward, my whole family started to take a look at their fits. While I was in the hospital, my mother and grandmother were both diagnosed with bipolar disorder. . My great grandmother also had fits too, and saw little people. We now think she had schizophrenia. I think my uncle has bipolar disorder too, but he blames his fits on Vietnam and Agent Orange.

So my little trip did some good for the whole family. Today, my mother and I are both working on our relationship with medications. We now have a much better understanding of ourselves and our illness. For any family out there that thinks that they can't change a whole lifetime of misunderstanding, hang in there, it can happen!