:confused: I don't understand how I can have bipolar I disorder when no one in my family even has bipolar disorder or depression. :confused:

I don't know alot about this, so I'm sorry if I'm way out of line.

My husband is Bipolar, his Father, one of his Father's Brother's,my husband's brother. Also his Father's Mother did from what we can tell by the stories he'd heard about her when he was a kid.

But here's the thing, his Father, Brother and Mother deny any depression or Bipolar in there whole family. Even after his Dad as been Hospitalize many times over the years, it's always due to someone elses fault. No one gets any ongoing treatment :rolleyes:

I also thought Bipolar can be very different for each person. I thought I understood that some people have to so mild it can be almost unnoticed.

What if the Bipolar was from a family member way down the line in your family tree, you never even met ?

I'm also there maybe other forms of Bipolar that doesn't run in famlies, maybe?

And remember people get the wrong diagnoses for all kinds of stuff all the time

I hope someone here who ones a thing or two more than me helps you.

if you have any question about the dx I'd see another Dr.

Bipolar disorder has certainly been identified as being influenced more by genetics than any other disorder, but that does not mean that an absence of a bipolar diagnosis in your family tree excludes you from the diagnosis.

As with any behavior disorder, there are genetic factors and environmental ones, and both are so complicated that it's nearly impossible to pinpoint a "cause".

If you think long enough, I bet you'll come up with examples of behavior that are suspicious.

My personal experience: nobody in my family has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or ADD. However, my paternal grandfather exhibited many bipolar traits. He was impulsive; he once made his wife and 4 sons live in a shack with no indoor plumbing for a year so he could "develop" a barren piece of land. Of course, he didn't finish the project. He invested in high-risk stocks on a whim. He was moody and sometimes violent. In addition, my parents both exhibit different symptoms of ADD. My mother has trouble staying awake when trying to process particular stimuli (for her, it's reading certain types of material and listening to any novel on audio; non-fiction audio is fine, so is reading novels). My father will ask the same question he asked 15 minutes ago because he got distracted and didn't listen to the answer.

So, there is certainly a history of these behaviors in my family. My parents do not have disorders because they aren't really impaired by their weaknesses. I am. Hence, I have a disorder that needs to be treated (2, actually).

Sorry for a long answer to a short question. Hope it is what you're looking for.

i only exhibit "bipolar symptoms...mania/hypomania specific" if I am administered an antidepressant med of any kind... never depressed but as a male w/ eating disorder in past... that is what they head toward when it comes to with meds and every antidepressant of any class has made me stay up for weeks straight and send me way beyond my "non dexedrine hyperactive" state... prozac made me want to rule the world, zoloft giddy happy yipee... paxil war zone... Trazodone was given to me for sleep and I was wired like no tomorrow... i don't ever naturally get manic though but i have a secondary bipolar dx based on my response to those types of meds... i was a lunatic... literally