I’ll try to condense everything as much as I can here. But I really, really need some advice. Please Bear With Me. 

Me (25M) 
My sis (18F) 

Moms side of the family (“history of”)

-Mania
-Anxiety/Anxiety Disorders or Attacks
-Arythmia
-Overthinking/Controlling behavior

Dads side of the family (“history of”)

-Bipolar Disorder
-Anger Management issues
-(one case of schizophrenia, appears isolated but idk) 


Growing Up:

-parents divorced (me: 8, my sis: 1) 
-not a very great 2-3 year period (arguing, witnessing parental altercation, dad got really mad during this whole period of time and about a year prior to divorce, he became a more angry/short tempered person, mom was kind of depressive, alone with us.) 
-Both remarried
-gained 3 step sisters and 2 half sisters (Lotta fighting at first and very awkward situations, very weird to adjust to was 11-12 at the time, sis was 3-4.) 


Bottom line, for me, I lost a lot of friends (my entire friend group at the time (6th grade) abandoned me because I was sad and weird (I developed trichotillomania and pulled out my eyebrows and eyelashes constantly and was now very anxious and mad.) I became introverted and more depressed. 

Eventually, I grew out of it. Still have the trichotillomania but not nearly as bad at all (rarely do it) and my anxiety is still there but very manageable. Noticed a small recurrent arrhythmia as I got older, but nothing severe. My anger was the last thing to get a grip on, but after years of meditation and counseling I’m in a much better place. 

Growing up I always worried about my sister and was a kind of a helicopter brother, always worrying and watching out for her. She always says she doesn’t remember anything from the divorce times (I’m very glad). But I’m worried

My sister:

-at the age of (I believe) 10/11 begins more introverted behavior.
-around the same time (not even a year later maybe) starts having bouts of irrational crying spells. They lasted sometimes for a couple days on end. It was absolute hell seeing her like that. To see a young kid crying like that for so long and them being confused as to why they are even so upset and sad, I don’t wish that on anyone in the entire world. 

-says that crying spells are brought about by sudden bad thoughts, that would swarm into her head and not leave. Feelings of doom and hopelessness. Excessive worry about other family members. 
-she would be depressed for up to a week and a half after these spells. 
-family didn’t know what to do, episodes weren’t too frequent and usually only happened during periods of change (mom going on a vacation with my stepdad or my dad leaving to go places for work.). 

-this continued and unfortunately slowly progressed over the next 2 years. 

-finally my boomer parents decide to take her to therapy. 
-it kind of helps her understand what’s going on, but we still don’t know what’s triggering the crying and depressive episodes. She gets put on meds (I believe anti anxiety or antidepressants ) at the age of 13/14. 

(I move away for college at this time.) 

It takes a little bit but the meds seem to start helping, and she is reacting to them quite positively. She becomes more confident and focused on school. She can handle change better as well as negative emotions or sensitive subjects. The episodes dwindle and she regains a good amount of control. 

But as she’s gotten older, I’ve noticed more anger coming out. She’s very standoffish at times, to be expected for an older teenager, but sometimes she seems apathetic and very dry. It’s kind of hard for her to show emotion to anyone, even us. She seems to be experiencing some depressive bouts here and there and when her best friend moved away and they no longer remained best friends, she went through a pretty bad time. That was about 2 years ago. 
She had some breakdowns after that, even with the meds and became slightly more apathetic and depressed. 

That brings us to now.

She recently got her second job ever, but quit the same day once her shift was over, because she almost had an anxious/nervous breakdown just before even going into the job. I guess she decided to ween off one of the meds and I’m guessing that’s what helped trigger it in this situation. 
I talked to her about it recently and she was reluctant to talk bout it (didn’t want to.) but she did talk about her feeling helpless to her emotional breakdowns and revealed that she’d had 12 breakdowns over the past 2-3 years. 
Not a lot but they sounded pretty alarming :

- shaking
-uncontrollable/overwhelming thoughts
-feelings of doom/loss/hopelessness/anxiety
-nothing helped her come out of it (the only thing was having my parents near to talk to her and help her ease out of it.) 
-uncontrollable crying
-being depressed after and not having great  success bouncing back (would take her a while to be happy again). 
-becoming apathetic for periods of time 

She just turned 18 and has been dealing with this for years. She doesn’t have a regular counselor or therapist but has seen 4 different ones in the past during periods of breakdowns. She is back on the med she stopped taking. 

But I’m worried. I know she’s strong but idk how to help. I’m getting closer to graduating so I’ll have more time to talk to her and communicate but I’m worried sick about her mental health and how she’s going to deal with all this going forward into adulthood and being on her own and moving and things like that. I don’t want her depressed or angry or sad or breaking down. None of it. She’s already been robbed so many years of happiness altogether. 


Advice I’d love to hear about: 

- has anyone else had a similar experience?
- does anyone know if this is just an anxiety disorder type thing or if it is caused by something else?
-what they heck is causing all this?
-does my family’s mental health history sound like a source of possible cause? 
-how can I better help her cope??
-how can I do better and be there for her? 
-are there any warning signs I should be looking for regarding dangerous behavior?? 
-has anyone heard or experienced something like this before?? 

Please, and thank you so much for reading this.