BiPolar Disease

I was having a conversation with a friend about my daughter, Heidi, who had bipolar disease, long undiagnosed. When she was in her 40's, after many bouts with being either up or down with a few interludes of being what could be considered normal, in the midst of an upheaval in her life, she entered the system, was evaluated and diagnosed. There is a loop involved, which usually starts with the police and being reported or reporting an event that involves how one is reacting to an event in ones life. This leads to finally being involved with someone who treats people with mental illness, and hopefully leads to help and continued monitoring, but, alas, this is not always true.

The friend told me that with the young people nowadays, bipolar crops up more and more as a real thing or an excuse for behavior that is not in the norm. As I am sure there is a thread that runs through our family, probably starting with the fact that early relatives are of Irish descent, and in my research I have discovered that there is a high incidence of bipolar, schizophrenia, and associated types of mental illness with the Irish starting in the potato famine, and the hegira from Ireland looking for a better life. The Irish, like any distinct population, tended to settle together in the New World, and it was noted that there was a high incidence of, especially schizoprenia among the group.

My Father told me years ago that we had a relative, probably my great, great grandfather, who having established a family and homesite, disappeared. So there must be a thread of something in our family, that I can account for with my daughter, Heidi, and leads me to want to know more. To be continued