If you have bipolar disorder, there is bipolar in your family genetically.
Genetics means that your matrilineal or patrilineal family line had bipolar disorder and passed it on to you. It can skip a generation, but in my experience, it is pretty easy to find bipolar disorder in your family tree.
This means that any child who has a grand parent, parent, aunt, uncle or cousin with bipolar has a chance to get bipolar disorder.
It’s in the child, percolating. In many cases, due to lack of the written word, we can’t track back far enough to find our genetic bipolar, but the stories are there.
– We had an uncle who was SO smart, but he kept getting married and divorced and could not stay off the sauce.
– My mom would disappear for months at a time- we were told she was visiting her mother. She was in the hospital.
– My cousin could never calm down. First it was drugs and then jail. The stories go that he was the smartest in the family, but when you needed him, he fell apart. Soon, we just called him lazy.
Today, with the internet and a lot more understanding of bipolar, we know that these stories are often a sign of untreated bipolar. Today, far more people are diagnosed, especially when there is a big drug and alcohol problem that is actually self medicating.
Unlike other illnesses such as cancer, we have WAY too little research into bipolar, but we do know that it’s genetic. It’s my goal to prevent an entire generation of kids from getting bipolar disorder by educating children from day one of what what make this gene express itself.
If you have the illness, your kids have a 25-35% chance of bipolar expressing itself naturally. If your child experiences any of the following situations and substances, the chances can double and triple of that latent gene expressing itself.
1. Constant changes in sleep. Going from sleeping on a regular schedule to a job that has uncertain hours where you sometimes have to work all night. My coauthor Dr. John Preston lists this environment as #2 on his list of bipolar triggers. I interviewed him extensively as I was writing Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder. The info in the book is true today and even more important in our internet society where we DO write down our symptoms for the world to see.
2. Medications for anything that can affect the mood. Cold medicine with pseudo ephedrine such as Sedated. Allergy medicines with steroids such as Flonase. I suggest that no child with bipolar in the family use anti depressants or ADD meds. It is simply too risky.
3. Cannabis. I can’t stress this enough. Many people are now seeing bipolar manifest after using today’s high TCH marijuana. Educate kids on this. Explain the difference between CBD and THC and teach them that THC can cause bipolar to come out if there is bipolar in the family.
I want you to think.
If you have bipolar, you KNOW how awful it can be. Start educating your children now about sleep and the medications and substances they put in their bodies. Teach them to stay stable.
My nephew is the love of my life. I will do anything to help him stay stable.
Keep that genetic bipolar gene LATENT!
