Hi there Dr. Rynne , I am a 45 yr old female, w/ genetic genes w/ mental illness mostly depression, and BP. I have never had many problems w/ over the years, I was adopted as a baby and nvr knew of my grandmother, biological suicide overdose they think was cause. That was on bio-fathers side, she had mental, illness, my bio-father who was 16 when had me ended up being a recovered alcoholic...Ik one of his natural daugters he has now as adult is having trouble w/ alcohol abuse. The other side of bio-family my mother being a twin, both her and sister both have some form of drug abuse, I feel due to mental depression or BP never being diagnosed and them self medicating. The mother on that side perfectly fine mentally that is, and the father as well, and their a third sister who is very bright, & does quite well for herself, & has made a very successful life for herself... My question is ik some of this depression or BP illness that the Dr s suspect I may have, which I had depression, that I could not deny if wanted to, its kind of attn. stealer & hard to miss! haha! Now that Im coming out of a 2 yr struggle w/ what I thought was just depression due to genetics and the other part of my story is the family I was adopted by also added a environment very ideal for depression to grow, such a molestation by adopted father when 7, 8 yrs old, and others relatives trying but I avoided their ploys to do just that...also a lot of very intense fighting btwn parents all the time very dysfunctional although did feel loved at times, had horses, pool, vacations 3 brothers that I love, and are the only ppl in the family that stay in each others life both, the mother and father, are not involved in any of their kids lives, b/c of their inability to see anyone but their own pride, and my children wouldn t recognize grandfather who lives 2 miles away if he walked passed. I forgave him for wht he did, yrs later the rest of family found out, by accident thru a good friend I had shared that private info w/ told them, my mother decided to answer to finding out about the incident: Well why didn t u report if that was actually happen and that was her only response and acted as if we were discussing a recipe I lost or something, no other questions were asked, ie..who was it when did occur nothing! I forgave her too and cont a relationship it was not her fault but her saying things like figments of what occurred in my childhood were the reason for our family fragmented and falling apart, which is not tru, she has always had trouble w/ whole family and there has no thing that has ever been easy w/ this woman EGO is her name being right is her game, and ik she too must have some sort of mental illness b/c Ive never seen or dealt w/ anyone close to her, she has never said sorry to me or anyone she has many problems very intelligent works at University at age 72, moves every few yrs...dragged us kids around to different states when she was feeling not satisfied w/ my dad she go somewhere and enroll in a college to earn another degree has several so not an unintelligent person so wondering am I destined to have problems due to the amount of mitigating factors in my life, Ive tried to turn to Lord for guidance and I def take med the Dr. s recommend but isn t there better test to see exactly what ur dealing w/ as far as just depression or if its a more serious condition that has to b so closely maintain as far as ur sleep, diet, exercise, taking medicine and then still struggle to feel normal sense of well being after following all those guidelines is there any other things ud suggest to findout exactly what it is BPII would b fine if that is indeed wht I have its the unsure testing being used thatleaves me feeling like what else could b lurking around corner for me...Ive taken all blood test that the dr. recommended but why hasn t anyone came up w/ a brain scan that shows wht ur particular wiring is defaulting on and how they can fix it w/o being on medication for rest of life...Do u know of any advances in fixing the willy nilly way they diagnose these illness and the way Dr.s really just try different cocktails that a lot of the times makes u must worse than before taking...There has to be research being done, for better methods to help ppl struggling everday w/ this...Can u tell me wht u kno or any advice u have on this matter? I thank u for ur time and what a lovely service u provide thank u! Thanks for Caring...all the best! terri :)