Friends/Family with bipolar/schizophrenia?

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My uncle is bipolar. He lives on disability because it along with some other things made his life very very difficult. My aunt has schizophrenia. We suspect my brother might be bipolar but he needs to see a doctor.

I have ADHD and BPD but I don't know anything about my family. Apparently, there is this terrible stigma of having a "mental illness" and that seeking professional help and whatnot brings shame and dishonor to the family.... even if I presented cold, hard scientific data on the relationship of psychological/neurological conditions and genetics, my parents would still deny it.

My son's dad has bipolar 1, as do I, and it's a nightmare when we're both depressed, but great when we're both manic. When one of us is manic and the other depressed it's okay. When one of us is normal and the other manic it's good. When one is normal and the other depressed it's bad but not as bad as if we're both depressed. Makes sense.

I have one uncle on my dad's side of the family who has been on lithium for many years because of bipolar disorder, and has had the same job for at least 20 years. I have another uncle who has it, but refuses to get it treated, and has basically alienated the family because he's been verbally abusive towards everyone. It's sad, but he's cut out of most of our lives because we got tired of his abuse. He has few, if any friends because he's treated people like crap because of his illness. Since verbal abuse isn't considered being a danger to others, and he's not suicidal, we can't force him into treatment.

Superboyian doesn't look like he's coming back, does he?

I was told another family member was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I've wondered at times if he might have been misdiagnosed, and might really have AS. He has acted inappropriately in different social settings, for example swearing excessively around others who are offended by this, talks loud, has trouble keeping friends, and has had obsessive interests and repetitive activities like religion, stripping wire, sports, puzzles, attachments to objects like my grandpa's watch, inappropriate sense of entitlement to things that don't belong to him, etc. He has also done some rather disturbing things and thought little of doing them, and also thinks little of telling other people about what he did or things he would do. As far as I know, he doesn't hear voices and doesn't have trouble reading body language. He's intelligent, and isn't prone to disorganized thinking, but he sometimes gets inappropriately angry (meltdowns?) and he recently said something that borders on paranoia. I dunno.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Schizophrenia

"The main job for a schizophrenic is to scare people. A good schizophrenic never commits crime because the resulting straight jacket and padded cell would render him unable to scare the maximum number of people."