Dear Debbie:
Yes, we, your family, know you are bipolar. We know you’re not taking your medication anymore, and we know you’re in denial and claim you are no longer affected. No, that homeopathic medicine the quack is selling you doesn’t do squat, as is obvious from your appearance today, in a hyperactive, manic state, screaming at people, spouting obscenities, and generally throwing a fit. Perhaps you could arrange to crash and enter the depressive phase by the time thanksgiving dinner starts? It would be much less stressful for the rest of us.
We know you’ve worked hard to erase unpleasant memories from your broken mind. However, we still remember them. In particular, I remember a few thanksgivings ago, when you had a completely unprovoked psychotic episode, and threatened to slash your arm with the carving knife and then call the police and tell them I did it. Perhaps you did not know that after this incident, I consulted an attorney and attempted to get a restraining order against you, requiring you to stay 500 feet away from me. Alas, the attorney said that I had no physical evidence, no independent witnesses to your behavior. Perhaps you have not noticed that ever since that time, I have never been alone in a room with you. My attorney advised me to never be in the same room with you unless there was another witness present, and that if you followed me alone into a room, I should leave the room, and if necessary, the house.
We also remember your 5 suicide attempts, the repeated, forcible incarcerations in a mental institution, your messy divorce, and your failed business that ended up draining my father’s life savings before you finally went bankrupt. We remember when you called the police on our neighbor when you were visiting, insisting that he was peeping in the window at you (he was out of town at the time). We remember the time you tried to kill me because I wouldn’t let you change the TV channel. We remember your manic episode when you swiped Mom’s Neiman-Marcus card and bought $2000 worth of christmas cookies, then gave them to HER. What a nice Christmas present, you didn’t have to spend a dime of your own money, it only took Mom 2 years to pay it all off! And I have only scratched the surface of all the insane things you did, and still continue to do.
Yes Debbie, we remember, and we still observe it happening, even if you don’t. Apparently we know more about bipolar disorder than you do. We all read the books, particularly one series of essays by a PhD Psychologist who is herself afflicted with bipolar disorder. She says that she doesn’t like the side-effects of lithium, for the same reason you refuse to take it, it makes you sluggish and you get fat, but that you have to take it anyway. Too bad you’re such a vain person (even though you’re pretty damn homely and have no rational reason for vanity). The PhD asserts that there are only two paths for a bipolar person: either you take lithium every day for the rest of your life, or you commit suicide. She says there is no way out, it is an absolute certainty that every single manic-depressive person will, without medication, kill themselves. So if you’re not going to take your lithium anymore, would you please hurry up and kill yourself? At least then, your ex-husband would get custody of your child, and since you are the least fit parent on the face of this earth, that can only be a good thing. Yes Debbie, we remember when we phoned you one night and your little 5 year old child answered the phone and said you did something bad and won’t wake up. You should have known you can’t commit suicide with a bottle of Prozac and a bottle of wine. If you’re going to try to kill yourself again, please have the courtesy to at LEAST not do it in front of your child again. She is already traumatized enough just from living around you, let alone witnessing your repeated suicide attempts. Since you are eventually going to kill yourself and inflict greivous mental damage on your child, perhaps you could arrange to do it somewhere besides right in front of the child?
Sorry if it seems harsh that I wish you would kill yourself. But that’s not really what I, and all the other members of our family really wish. What we REALLY wish is that you had never been born. But alas, this cannot happen. If only it could, all the unending horror that you’ve inflicted on us over the years would not have taken place. Yes, Dear Sister, the world would be a better place without you in it. Our house is a better place without you in it. So after Thanksgiving dinner, you are cordially invited to FUCK OFF and go back home, IMMEDIATELY. Go do whatever it is you do with your life, just do it AWAY from us. Far FAR away.
The important thing is that they accept the consequences of their actions, and don’t try to have it both ways, e.g., “You can’t have me arrested for that, I did it because I’m SICK”)
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