I grew up with a bipolar mother and sadly CPS never took me away or even got involved. Even after she cut and burned me in the midst of a manic break convinced I was the devil when I was 10. Every so often, she'd have an episode and I would go off to live with a relative until she emerged from the hospital. Lather, rinse, repeat. My life was incredibly chaotic; I'd have some stability when she was hospitalized, but would be thrown right back into the lion's den to await her next episode once she got out. Once I was old enough to understand what was happening to her, it was constant anxiety wondering when she would break again. As an adult I live with this "impending sense of doom" to this day, though many years of therapy have helped some.

I urge you to really think this through. My life growing up was an absolute nightmare, a literal living nightmare from which I could not awake. Don't get me wrong, my mom is a wonderful person, but her illness affected me profoundly in permanent ways.

She should have aborted me, or given me up for adoption (which she considered). It was selfish and delusional on her part to think she was capable of raising a child. Please think this through. I wouldn't wish what I went through as a child of mental illness on my worst enemy.

I hope you understand where I'm coming from, I don't mean to be harsh or cruel and I realize some people manage their illness better than others but when I stumbled across your post I just had to speak up. I only wish someone would have been able to talk my stubborn mother out of it. I can only imagine the kind of life I could have had if she'd done the right thing and given me up for adoption; instead, my life is a constant uphill battle between my own genetic mental issues and past trauma.