You see, if you are brave enough to do that kind of research it can provide alot of answers. It was a bit more difficult in our case because my mother was adopted. But when I asked questions about her birth mother, and actually met her birth father and brother, so much was cleared up. Her mother suffered with depression, anxiety and similar bipolar symptoms that my mom did. She also never got any sort of therapy or treatment and self-medicated with alcohol. She was a workaholic and could often be violent. But her mother was also very talented and intelligent.
Her father died from complications of Alzheimers.
Honestly, I have no idea what or if her brother dealt with anything but I do remember him being quite...odd. He could have been just eccentric but he wasn't the most socially-able person and didn't respond to situations or the people around him the way a well-functioning adult should have.
My brother, half-brother,half-sister and I all suffer with various kinds of anxiety, depression and mood disorders. It could be because my mom abused alcohol during each of her pregnancies with us or it's just our reactions to what we went through as kids. We'll never know that for sure. But what's interesting is that our family shows how deep mental illness can be absorbed into the fibers of the family tree.
If you want to understand your own mental health struggles better, or want to figure out how you can help a loved one, try digging into your history for answers. It may not be pretty but it's a way to figure out where/how things started as well as how you can stop the cycle, if you can. Or, at the very least, learn what can be done from this point on to make things better.
Today's post was inspired by THIS article from the Dana Foundation's newsletter Cerebrum, Dean F. MacKinnon. I hope you find it helpful and feel free to pass it along to someone you think would be interested.
As a person who has written a memoir in this area, I understand the importance of putting these books out on the shelves.Ursodiol People can read all the medical journal articles or watch these issues highlighted on the news or in movies but never truly understand unless they speak directly to the sufferers and their families.
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