While I'm not sure he has received a diagnosis from a clinician, my mother has always told me my uncle is bipolar. And from personal experience, I can confirm that there is definitely something wrong with him and it probably is bipolar disorder - as opposed to something similar, like BPD.

He is in his mid-to-late 40s and still lives with my grandparents. He does a lot for them, such as helping my disabled grandfather in and out of bed, and helping him out of his chair to go on walks around the house. He doesn't do this, however, out of choice. He doesn't still live with his parents out of a desire to help them; he doesn't have a job (and hasn't for a long, long time) and doesn't have any friends.

He goes up and down a lot, as you'd expect from somebody who's bipolar. I remember, a few months ago, that he was actually the happiest I've ever known him. He was smiling, friendly and slapping me on the shoulder while making jokes. I've always known him as aloof, and had learned to be wary of him even before I grasped that he is mentally ill.

Nowadays, he barely says hello when I walk in after college. Months ago (before his aforementioned "good" cycle) he snapped and shouted at my grandfather while helping him out of bed, throwing clothes and punching the light. A few weeks ago, he walked down into the kitchen and shoved my grandma out of the way of the sink, in order to fill his glass of water. And just now, as I sit in my grandmother's bedroom, I can here him in the adjacent room punching the walls and occasionally shouting.

I don't know whether it's just my family which has a somewhat considerable history of mental illness (depression, bipolar, personality disorders) or whether this is endemic in most families. Regardless, it's definitely a big enough issue to warrant significantly more attention than it gets. I don't know whether my family is an anomaly, and that it's unusual to live in such an environment that can be quite tense. Does anyone else have experience of living with somebody who's mentally ill? What's it like?

My sister is blind, her husband has ADHD, and my mother has enormous baggage on her head to the point of being emotionally unstable. My father's an alcoholic with insecurity issues.

No real mental disorders though. Just difficulties. I don't know if you would call or contribute a mental disorder to being a dysfunctional family, but, in a lot of cases nowadays, there are a A FUCK ton of dysfunctional families. Which, sort of makes sense, considering that roughly 50% of marriages or more, don't work out.

Keep in mind, I say don't work out, and not split. Sometimes people fight to hold things together and it only gets worse. But, to answer your question, I am very familiar with having to step around tripmines.

But it's all good. My sister fights and works alongside me despite having a quarter of one eye functioning, her husband seems to be fine at rolling along, I don't talk to my father when he's drunk, and I fight my mother's tendancy to swing around and get angry with humor.

But, you are right however. Non-functioning families, either through disorders or troubles, is downplayed quite a bit.

I have ADD, but don't really see it as a mental disorder. I just get impatient and distracted easily. My brother is on the autism spectrum and he was a devil when he was younger and really just wanted to punch him

My mom started acting crazy around her late 20's.  A year into my parent's divorce I remember we were driving home one night and she randomly asked me if "my people" thought we should get pop from the gas station.  Being 7ish I just said sure and didn't think much of it.  But over the span of the 6 year divorce it gradually got worse.  She thought pretty much every person she has or ever had came into contact with was in the CIA, one faction on our side and another on my dad's side out to get us.  My dad tried having the judge force her to get diagnosed to get help since the judge refused to give him custody and she was court ordered to but skipped it and the judge never held her for contempt.  My dad filed a complaint on the judge and won the case representing himself.  I guess she has some kind of pyschosis or schizophrenia?