Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while, I have been having Cross Country meets and practices every day after school. Anyway, here is the thirteenth little story in this whole big story, or whatever you say to describe it. This time, it's in Talia's POV.

A Loving Sister

I'm a girl with bipolar disorder. That's when your moods go up or down way too far. Sometimes with bipolar, you feel so happy that you get kind of hyperactive, bouncing off the walls and jumping for joy. Then, within minutes, bipolar came make you feel really sad or really mad that you start throwing stuff around, screaming and stomping.

With bipolar, when a person gets either really, really happy or really, really sad or mad, they have no idea why they feel that way. They can think of nothing that caused their mood to be so extreme one way or the other.

When I was seven years old, I got mad at my sister for no reason. We got into a fight over nothing, and I got so mad that I threw my glass piggybank at her. Pretty bad, huh?

Maybe some of my anger was due to the fact that my parents had recently divorced and my mom and dad were not getting along well. My mom had been following my dad around. Then one night, she came to our house and attempted to hurt him, and he ran inside to call the police. At that point, she started to go upstairs to find me. I was asleep. Ziva had stopped her from coming to get me, because I remember the next morning, when we all came down to the breakfast table, my sister had a couple new cuts on her face that I knew wasn't from Mossad.

I remember being told that our mom ran away before the police got there, but the next day, she was arrested for harassing our family.

The next day, I was supposed to be with my mom, but of course, she didn't' show up. That's when I knew something was wrong. Ziva and Ari tried to protect me from finding out why she didn't come. They just told me that she had done something wrong and couldn't be with me. I cried every night because I missed her, and I became really depressed. Finally, I bugged my sister enough that she told me what happened that night. In a way, it just made me more upset because everyone had kept the truth from me.

Around that time, I had begun to experience these extreme mood shifts. First I'd be really, really happy and then the next minute I'd be really, really mad. Then I couldn't stop myself from crying. It was very confusing, and I felt like I had no control over my emotions anymore. When I would get into trouble, I couldn't understand why I was behaving so badly. I would later come back to my sister and apologize to her for being so out of control, and she would always say, "It is okay, Tali. You are forgiven. Tomorrow will be a better day." It was hard on her, I'm sure, but she tried to deal with it by giving me love and understanding. She somehow knew that I couldn't help myself and suspected something more was wrong with me when one say I got so depressed that I asked her, "Why don't you just get rid of me?" I had been so down that I didn't even want to live anymore.

She didn't think that my behavior was all because of what was happening between mom and dad. So, she took me to see a doctor who helps kids that have the same kind of issues that I was dealing with. It helped to know that there was someone out there who could understand me. It didn't seem like my family was able to do that at that time.

The day I threw my piggybank my sister realized that I had gotten so out of control of my emotions that I could be a danger to myself and others. So, she, my brother, and the doctor agreed that putting me in the hospital would help keep me safe while they ran some tests. It was there that I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The good news was, once they knew what I had, they could find the right medication to help me balance out. While in the hospital, I also learned about bipolar and the challenges of living with this illness.

I felt so much better after I got out of the hospital. I stopped feeling so sad and then suddenly totally happy. Finally, I felt normal for the first time in a long time.

Still, when I had some bad mood swings after I got out of the hospital, I thought Ziva would want to send me back there as punishment for my actions. But my sister never wanted to punish me for doing something that I couldn't control. She explained to me that she never wanted to be away from me, she only wanted to find the help that I needed to get better and stay better.

Sometimes I would think about how my mother could have given me away because it was hard to deal with me when my bipolar was going on, but she is too much of a loving sister to ever do that. Instead, she was always behind me, supporting me with lots of love and patience.

When I begin to get a little out of hand, my sister watches to see if I continue this behavior. If I do, it usually means that I need to change medications because the one I'm on has stopped working. That's part of the challenge of living with bipolar. Sometimes, body chemistry can change, causing medications to act differently or the body just simply stops working with the medication and you have to change it.

Not long ago, I began hearing voices telling me to do stuff. I had to go to the hospital again and get off the medication I was on and start a new one. It was hard to face going to the hospital and going through another adjustment, but after being there for a few days and getting a new medication, the voices went away and I felt more like myself again-more balanced.

It's been five years now since I was diagnosed with bipolar. For the most part, I am doing well, and my emotions are more in the middle now and less 'way too up' or 'way too down'. I can thank my sister for helping me make sure that I don't get sick and out of control. No matter what, she's there for me. Knowing that, I can cope with having an illness that I'll always have to work at managing.

With her there, I can get through another day.

There we go, another chapter done. Whew. That one killed my fingers. I have not been typing in FOREVER so this is kinda weird…but, on the other hand, I know you guys want another chapter/looking forward to another chapter/liked the story enough to read it again so I thought I should post some new material…whatever applies to you. I can't say when another chapter will be up, there's just so much going on. I may be posting more and more after October 4, considering that's our last Cross Country meet…so…yeah, I guess. Well, anyway, hope you liked this chapter, and stay tuned to find out if I get around to posting another chapter! Be sure to review, and review, and review, pleeeeeeeasee!