We didn’t know at the time, but my brother is bipolar.
In his teens, he’d be super super awesome for weeks on end – “Don’t worry about it, Muad_Dib, I’ll do the dishes for you tonight. Also I cleaned the bathroom this afternoon. Wanna play video games when I’m done?”
We called him “Jeeves” during those weeks – it was like having a hyper-energetic butler in the house. Looking back it’s obvious he was having his first manic periods.
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There are three of us – I’m the oldest, brother is 2½ years younger than me, sister is 3 years younger than him.
We were all one of our parents’ “favourites”. I was Dad’s favourite, no contest. Brother was Mom’s. Sister was stepdad’s. That means my parental ally was out of the picture by the time I was 9.
Whenever Mother or Stepdad would go on a rampage on one of us, at least one of the others would ally with them. So if Sister was whining to Stepdad about something she claimed I did, Brother would back me. Usually it just ended up with both of us in trouble, but it was nice to have the support.