does anyone know????

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-18-2003
does anyone know????
5
Tue, 09-27-2005 - 12:09pm

i know i touched on this in another thread, but it's really driving me nuts - not sure why - but it is.


does anyone know if bp is something we are born with, or if it develops kinda like maturing or if some undefined "thing" causes it - like a flu for lack of better example?


i don't know why this has recently become such an important question for me. i guess because i'm just trying to figure out if there's anything left for me? i really don't know. it just keeps eating at me and won't let up.


traci

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 09-27-2005 - 12:47pm

All I know is that it can be hereditary...it does seem to onset around puberty...and it also seems to manifest symptoms during mid to late 20's, if not treated...and I got this from several different pdocs.

It runs in my family, maternal side...my brother also has it...ultradian cycling, exactly like mine...my aunt and uncle (brother and sister also both have it, exactly alike). My maternal grandfather had it as well. That's as far up the family tree that I've gone.

All I really know.

Hugs.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-18-2003
Tue, 09-27-2005 - 1:31pm

thanks keli.


that's about all i know too. not knowing if anyone in my family has it (or had it) makes the one hard to nail it to, but the others that you mention - i was 38 before it became so cyclical. i had problems in high school, but they were just chalked off to 'the teen years' by everyone, became kinda stoic during my 20's and it wasn't until i was faced with a multitude of problems in my

Avatar for momtwofourboys
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 09-27-2005 - 2:00pm

I believe hereditary - at least in my case

Maternal Grandmother - bipolar
Had 4 kids -
1 uncle no bp
1 uncle w/bp - had 2 kids one with bp
1 aunt w/ bp - three kids - twins have bp - possibly daughter
mother - bp - 4 kids - brothers no bp, myself bp, and sister has genetic disorder so who knows.

myself (onset of symptoms 12 but can remember symptoms as young as 6- 4 boys - 9,6, 4, 3. 9 yo is moody but is 9 hopefully okay no bp. 6 yo extreme bp on meds still not 100 percent stable. younger boys fine so far.

Very hereditary in our situation.

Jen

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-10-2003
Tue, 09-27-2005 - 2:05pm

Traci,

In my quest to understand this whole BP thing, I have done a TON of reading...

That said, I am by NO means an expert, but here is my understanding...

BP has a hereditary component: that is, children of BPers, and for whatever reason, children of alcoholics CAN have a **predispostion** to having Cyclothymia and BP (and alcohol dependency)... I have heard this can be as high as a 50% chance.

In some people, it will be dormant and they will never experience it...

In other people, it is dormant until some traumatic event causes it to surface...

In still others, the symptoms just occur (usually at a younger age) and persist through life...

There is evidence that after the first symptoms appear, if not treated with medication, each successive episode becomes worse. Cyclothymics have a 15% - 50% chance of becoming Bipolar. Bipolar II often gets "upgraded" to Bipolar I, and so on.

That is why Pdocs get so upset when we refuse medication. They know the cycles get worse for most people over time. A full 50% of BPers will eventually attempt suicide... 20% of them will succeed.

It is a hard disease to treat, but it IS treatable.

Hope this helps...

Catherine

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2004
Tue, 09-27-2005 - 2:42pm

Traci,


All my reading and what my tdoc has told me jives with what Catherine has said--that their is a hereditary component that can lay dormant and be "awakened" by trauma, yet other times it just begins on it's own with or without a family connection.


Marci