my friend who is bipolar avoids telling people she is bipolar. i don't. i think she is right. it brings on a whole lot of baggage. I don't know why i do it. it seems that the people who are understanding are understanding when i show my depression anyways or my anxiety whether i am bipolar or not and the people who are not understanding do not show understanding even if they know i am bipolar. it takes a special person to be supportive to us. even before i was diagnosed my mother said let the state take care of me because she knew i had problems. it is so hard to forgive but i am working on it.
people say that people do the best they can do and that is one way towards the path to forgiveness and accepting of when other people let you down.
just because those people happen to be your family you still shouldn't expect them to understand and give you the treatment you need.
bobby