Bi-polar disorder?

I will return in due course and let you know how things pan out. Thanks for your responses posters.

annie its been on my mind too,I dont understand why any mother would stay with a man who didn't like her child and made that dislike obvious.Why wouldn't you tell him to act like the grown up he was and behave around her or just take your children and leave .I couldn't accept anyone who was bad to my kids ..not beating them just ruining their self esteem which is almost worse

This has troubled me most of the day. If your daughter is diagnosed with a mental disorder, she needs your love, support, patience and understanding, don’t turn away from her.

I was concerned when you said ‘my sister suggested bi polar,
your response was ‘I certainly don’t want to see her’

Even in the same family, every child's childhood is entirely different

I know someone who is bipolar and she is the kindest, loveliest, most generous person you could meet (sometimes her generosity could be overwhelming) but she has been hospitalised too from time to time when everything becomes too much for her to cope with.

For years I cared for someone with bipolar and he was the kindest most understanding person you could meet. Yet he was so bad with bipolar he had to be hospitalised sometimes.
Your daughter seems unhappy and neurotically anxious. Maybe some simple CBT would help her. Can you get her to go to her GP? The GP is usually the gatekeeper for specialist services.

Sorry, I meant ‘seems all the blame is placed on the eldest child’.
I don’t know if your elder daughter is ill, neither do you, reading your posts, she was 3 when her brother was born, her father left, at 4 she had a step father who didn’t take to her but did to her younger brother .

Then younger daughter had terrible teens because her father had rows with her half sister.

I hope things change for the better.

It definitely doesn't sound like Bi-polar disorder to me, my daughters partner has the worst form of the disorder and he is totally incapable of caring for himself let alone their daughter. He is also very devious and extremely controlling - in certain phases anyway - other times he simply can't get out of bed. He just disappears with absolutely no contact, sometimes for weeks on end.
My daughter has mental health issues too which often results in extremely vicious verbal attacks on myself and my OH.
I suppose she has to vent on someone, unfortunately its always the nearest and dearest!

Son is the middle child, 3 years younger. Maybe I’ve confused things but it was DD1 and husband who clashed all the time in her teens. I will say that DD1 has always been very reliable her whole life including her teens. DD2 wasn’t born until DD1 was nearly 20.

. It seems all the blame is placed on the middle child.

Older 2 children’s father was an alcoholic. Elder daughter sees him fairly often but son has little to do with him. There is a 20 year gap between my 2 daughters. Youngest daughter is 25. Her teens were terrible as husband and DD1 fought all the time. Then after she grew up and left home they got on far better. Maybe I should write her a letter but at the moment I feel too hurt by the things she has said.

That's harsh Stella1949 mental health problems cannot be be attributed like that. The poor relationship with her step father may have caused some problems for the poster's daughter but we don't know what her illness is or even if she has one.

Your daughter was 2 and a new baby arrived , she was 4 when a step father arrived and he didn’t take to her ? You say she is your eldest child so a 3rd baby arrived ?

She and husband no 2 got on better when she was in her teens !

Where was her father ?

It sounds as if she has a lot of issues from her childhood . You say that you brought your new husband into the family when she was 4 and that "he didn't take to her" ......I can't even imagine how awful it would be for a little girl to have a new father -figure in her life who didn't like her. If you are looking for a reason for her mental problems, sorry but it seems pretty obvious where her problems come from.

If your 2nd husband "didn't take to her" she may well have had a miserable childhood and kept it to herself .The others had a stepdad/dad who got on with them so her experience is different.Childhood experiences can leave lasting problems.I was a middle child and often felt left out or unfairly criticised and I still feel the effects now at 65.For instance I have always believed I was fat ..even when I was a size 6/8 because my mother always was always weight conscious and told me I needed to lose weight..even on my wedding day .Now when I look back at photographs I dont see what I saw in the mirror then.Your daughters OCD could well be a result of her childhood experience .She needs help .Maybe her anger is directed at you because YOU brought the stepfather who didn't like her into her life ?

I agree with other posters; one shouldn’t diagnose. But there is very evidently a problem. All her frustration is aimed at me but there is not a single family member who doesn’t find her odd. Last month our younger daughter took DGD2 (10 months) for a brief visit en route elsewhere. She ate lunch on my elder daughters tiled conservatory floor (and she is a very messy eater ?) but she went nuts about the mess and cleared up around her constantly.

My eldest daughter has always been the most prickly of my children. Her situation was not helped when I met my 2nd husband when she was 4. He did not take to her at all at first but seemed ok with her brother 3 years younger. I have done my utmost to protect her and after her teens she and husband 2 got on far better. I had never had a real spat with her until a couple of years ago when these attacks started. She is severely traumatised by her working situation(s). I have no idea how to help her but nobody in my life has ever abused me as she has recently done and I just don’t feel like approaching her. She said she’d had a terrible childhood. I asked my other 2 children what they thought and they said they’d had a perfectly normal childhood. I truly think she is mentally ill in some capacity. She makes enemies of lots of people whereas I avoid confrontation at all costs. I concede she had a lot to deal with; I worshipped her from birth, then
then when she was 3, a little brother came along then less than 2 years after, later a step father (still with).

I think I may arrange to meet her husband and see if we can agree that she needs help. He is quite controlling which doesn’t help.

It's not impossible for it to be PND, even 13 years later. Your daughter has probably felt " unwell " for a long time as the longer it's left and the older you get the worse the condition goes until it manifests itself into a psychosis.
I would visit a GP asap if I was your daughter. Once on the right medication her condition will start to improve. She probably also has PMT at the same time each month which will exacerbate an existing problem.

Yes MOnica with great sadness I do .

Yes, Annie this is something you know about.

You are right MOnica , a bi polar sufferer when on a high can manage without sleep for several nights, when on a low
too depressed to get out of bed .

Does it matter what she has? She clearly has mental health issues and these need to be treated, but unless she agrees to this little can be done.

The best thing for you to do, you are already doing as are her PiL and that is kto keep your distance, while trying to support your DGD.

She is now 13 and close to being able to lead her life independently from her mother. She presumably has a phone so that you can text her and mail her and offer all the support you can, and she can make decisions as the whether she would like to visit you or not. Have you discussed the issue with your SiL and got his take on it.

By the way, whatever her problems it is unlikely to be Bi-polar. Because the name describes the problem. Sufferers swing between the poles of episodes of manic activity and periods of inactivity and depression and, I think, periods of normality. This does not sound remotely like your daughter's problem.

bi polar isn’t diagnosed by a couple of consultations. No one should try to diagnose a mental disorder and attach a label

I agree sodapop.
Having had my first husband as definite bipolar, and second son as possibly inheriting the condition. Both in their 30s when the symptoms started.
Speak to your GP about how to get an assessment for your daughter, as by the sound of it she won't want to admit to her own problems. It won't be easy.

It's not a good idea to start pulling diagnoses out of the ether like this glammagran get some professional help for your daughter. You could do a lot of harm attributing her problems to some type of mental illness.
In the meantime support the rest of the family as much as you can.