just how hereditary is bipolar?

Hi I was on this forum a number of months ago feeling a crushing depression, and cutting, which I really loved tbh. It stuck longer than any depression I've felt. Long story short I have been in therapy and we have not arrived at any kind of definitive diagnosis except serious distractability like ADHD. I "seem" Ok to my doc but I am dark, I am distracted, but yet I seem so normal.

My mom is bipolar and I have seen her mood swings and the funny sounding medications she took. My question is this: how likely is it that I am bipolar too? Of course, known research says yes, but I know I am not severe, it's enough to make me feel dead inside, and then make me feel alive and driven to change things. Those who are not depressed view suicidal thoughts as "serious", but to me they are a familiar old friend.

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i'm not a doctor, but i think there is some heredity involved. when i was in the hospital last year after a failed attempt, they talked about the seratonin uptake in some people is not as good as others. from there, the mood swings happen and eventually, i think, as our body and mind are trying to fight back, we have the upswing. but we can only stay there for so long then we go back down. i am on a mood stabilizer and it does seem to help.

 

http://www.familyaware.org/expertprofiles/drghaemi2.asp

 

Thanks for the link. Very informative. Wow according to that article yes it could seem so. It's now 2.42am and I am not going to sleep. Too much going on in my head. I want to stay up to make a point. I wish I could know for certain that's what's wrong. I just want an answer. I know I've felt what they described as the mania part but wtf knows especially with these diagnoses info flying around in your head. People generally just now something is up, but me, it seems the same shade of grey.

 

There is a significant hereditary component to bipolar. I haven't got the figures in front of me, but I know it's quite high concordance.

Not sure if you're aware of this as well, but there's also a link between having a bipolar parent and having unipolar (normal) depression, so it may be that, rather than bipolar. If you're concerned, go to a doctor or someone to ask them about it.

Take care,
Lauren

 

It’s pretty hereditary. I had a family member who had it then killed himself. Another family member has been in the hospital under suicidal watch. They think she has it too. “An Unquiet Mind” is a really really good book to read about bipolar disorder. It’s by a psychologist who has it. There’s also cyclothymic disorder which is like a lower scale bipolar disorder.

 

Hey that's wild man. Just as there is cyclothymic disorder (also called cyclothymia) for a lesser kind of bipolar, there is also this "dysthymic disorder," also known as dysthymia--a milder but chronic, low depression!

Sometimes... I just stand back. No, FAR, FAR back. Far enough back to get a glimpse at what it is to human.

I see all these goddamned labels. Sometimes I wonder if it's all in our heads, LOL. It is, of course but...

Seriously. As new psychological diseases and disorders are "discovered" and therewith published in the latest iterations of the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (there have been five or six of them since its inception in 1952), this manual becomes more and more controversial among psychiatrists worldwide.

Let's return to my from a distance perspective. I'll bet that, going by the APA (American Psychiatric Association)'s DSM, why 90% or easily more of the world population is mentally disordered in some way!

Want some examples? Well how about the several recategorizations of homosexuality from sexual deviance to its present category as "sexual disorder not otherwise specified" (what?) How about the criteria by which symptoms and life difficulties may be labeled as "normal" or "abnormal." And to paraquote Wiki:

The political context of the DSM is a topic of controversy including its use by drug and insurance companies. The potential for conflict of interest has been raised because roughly 50% of its authors have had or have relationships with pharmaceutical industries, leading some to argue that the expansion of disorders in the DSM has been influenced by profit motives and represents an increasing medicalization of human nature.
SOURCE

Couldn't have said it better myself. Oh yeah. I did. :thumbup:

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