LOL, Mental illness runs in several of my family branches!
I found a copy of an article in The Virginia Herald and Fredricksburg Advisor, June 26, 1794, says that my 5th great grandfather, Henry Johnston of Spotsylvania County accuses his wife, nee Agnes Carr Waller (a granddaughter of Thomas Carr and Mary Dabney),of having taken up with another man and of conspiring to take his estate and commit him to the local mad house.
One of their sons, William Goodloe Johnston, is frequenetly referred to in wills and other documents as the "unfortunate brother" which we strongly suspect was due to mental illness.
Generations later one of my Johnston grandfather's 1st cousins spent some years in "Western State" which was the Tennessee State Mental Hospital.
I have no doubt insanity may not only "run" in my family but propbably "strolls" through and greets each of us so it can settle in.
Then I have similar traits on my mother's side and mother, may she now rest in peace, spent some time in the mental ward of a hospital. And Mother and dad were 7th cousins that I know of (probably more ways than one just not yet proven) and that means I'm related to myself!
Good luck with your search. HWJ