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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My sister has bipolar disorder, and there's other mental illness that runs through my family s well. I haven't cut anyone off, I've just put up very firm borders. For instance, I never give anyone money, and I don't drop everything to show up for every manufactured crisis. For the big stuff (e.g., my sister's suicide attempt), of course I do. But not for the drama. For phone conversations, it helps a lot for me to remind myself of the reality of the illness, and accept the fact that I can't fix it or any of the consequences. So when my sister is manic and telling me all about her grand plans to take up mountain climbing (even though she lives no where near mountains) and that she wants to buy a cabin on a mountain top and climb her way up and down every day so she just went to REI and bought a ton of equipment, I just say, "Oh, that sounds interesting" and find a way to gently end the conversation sooner rather than later. I can't convince her this isn't a good plan, and she's definitely not receptive to hearing that perhaps she should return it because just last week she was stressing about how she's going to pay her rent this month, so I save myself the angst and move on. Similarly, if my mother (also mentally ill, but different diagnosis) starts saying hurtful things during a phone conversation, I'll say, "Mom, I'm not interested in discussing this with you, I'll call you next week when you're feeling better." And then I hang up.[/quote]

This is such sage advice.  I'm curious how long it took you to get to this place?  Did you get counseling for yourself, support group, etc?[/quote]

+1  I am slowly getting there. Very admirable how you handle your family members with their issues. Blessings to you![/quote]

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