u/Huge-Cake-8874

Hi! My mom (61F) had the LINX surgery about 6 years ago. She initially struggled with how tight it is, but in the past few years felt her GERD coming back. As it turns out, her LINX has become dislodged. If it stays in, it will be absorbed by her scar tissue.

She decided to get it removed + get a nissen fundoplication. She is having this done at the end of the month. I am looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience, if anyone has advice for the recovery, etc. she is very nervous for the surgery, and I want to be as prepared as possible to help her!

EDIT: added her age

I (24F) have a brother (28M) with bipolar 1. He started showing symptoms as a kid, looking back they are clear now. He really onset around age 14 when he started using drugs. From ages 14-21, he was in and out of rehab and psych hospitals. He was diagnosed at 16. He had almost every delusion and psychotic feature you can imagine.

There was a lot of years we didn’t see an end in sight. I watched my family collapse and my parents try to cope. I struggled a lot, and still struggle with the trauma.

My brother hasn’t been hospitalized for 6 years. He has been on medication for 6 years. He has been thriving for 6 years. Of course there are hard moments, but his bipolar doesn’t control his (or our) life anymore.

I struggle a lot with the trauma of being raised in a home with a bipolar person. I wish I had a solution to offer about that, but I just saw the opportunity to tell people that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is another side to this.

TLDR; brother struggled for years with bipolar 1, and is now thriving

I am a 25F. Sorry this is long, i wanted to get in all the details. I have an older brother (28M) and older sister (26F). We have a pretty bad genetic predisposition to mental illness. My grandma (dad’s mom) is bipolar (she actually took part in a lot of early bipolar drug and treatment testing) and my grandpa (mom’s dad) was likely undiagnosed bipolar. Neither of my parents are bipolar, both are medicated for depression. My mom lived a party girl life when she was younger and tried many drugs. My dad was very buttoned up and has never smoked weed, but drinks a decent amount.

My brother was a pretty normal kid until high school, though he showed signs of an addictive personality from an early age. In high school, he got into drugs (mainly smoking lots of weed, which led him to psychedelics). This led him to multiple psychotic breaks, years of struggles, and an eventual bipolar 1 diagnosis. He was diagnosed around 16/17 years old. We then found out he had a very traumatic event happen to him at a young age, which likely in combination with his drug use made the bipolar really rear its head.

My sister has always struggled with her mental health, with anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. I believe she has undiagnosed autism (I also think my dad has this) and that brought on a lot of struggles. When she turned about 22/23, she was diagnosed with treatment resistant depression. She tried everything, every medication, treatment such as ketamine, and nothing worked. She attempted, but luckily was saved. She then got ECT treatment which saved her life. She drinks and smokes and is LIKELY also bipolar.

Now we come to me. I have lived a fairly mentally stable life, given these circumstances. I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD in college and began taking Zoloft for that. I was pretty parentified as a kid, so I have trauma around that, my siblings disorders, and drugs. A big issue I have is about being in control as I grew up in situations where I felt I had none. I have had a pretty standard mental health journey, though periods of depression occasionally (which were always fixed with Zoloft). I have been in therapy for 2 years. I drink pretty heavily, but less than many of my friends. Definitely could never drink again and be totally content with my life

I have a pretty big aversion to weed, but my partner likes to smoke. It has caused some struggles between us because I have tried to control him with it, which I know isn’t sustainable. I realized that my fear is a lack of understanding. I’ve never been high, so I don’t know what it feels like. I am posting here to see if it is safe for me to try it. I don’t have an addictive personality so I’m not afraid of that, I’m more afraid that the weed could somehow cause a mental break and make me bipolar for the rest of my life. I am curious about it and truly want to try. I don’t want to be scared of it anymore.

(TLDR: I want to smoke weed because I am curious and think it could help me understand my partner better; but I am scared to based on my genetics)