Do you have sisters or brothers?

Does he look like me? I don't know really. He's extremely thin and I am not. And he still has a beard.

To the HORROR of my parents he is now working in a bookshop.

I have one biological brother, 2 years older than me. He is almost exactly like me, except that he is completely non-musical. Because music is the biggest part of my life, this means that we might as well be diametrically opposite to me.

He sufferes from the same mental illness, but because (this is my opinion, and a biased quasi-religious one at that) he does not have music to lift him out of it, and does not have a creative expression to channel it into, he is crippled by it. I have not spoken to him in three years because he made threats on my and my mother's life during "an episode".

I also have an adopted sister that I often refer to as "my twin" because we were born on the same day, albeit in different countries. She lives in Michigan now and spends most of her time dating rock stars and writing solo albums.

He is the source of much amusement among my chums who have spuriously decided that he is gay. Not that there would be anything wrong if he was, of course, but he isn't. They have decided this because of an unfortunate range of facts / stereotypes, e.g he didn't know what channel the footie results were on when round at mine once, he is very into bodybuilding, he was in the scouts / venture scouts till the age of 18 or so, he shares a flat (2 bedrooms!) with another bloke etc. etc.

Why don't more of your brothers and sisters post on this board as well?

We all have similar eyes, but other than that we don't look too much alike.

My brother who died was probably the most like me, except he was a Deadhead. And a homeless heroin addict, off and on, for the last 15 years of his life.

I'm the middle child of seven and I think I fit those birth order theories to a tee. It also describes my older siblings pretty well ), but not the younger ones.

I have one sister, two years younger. When we were younger we fought ALL THE TIME. It must've slowed down a lot a bit before I left for college. Now we get along better than ever before.

We have more or less the same hair color (dirty blond, where dad = blackish brown, mom = red) but otherwise don't look a whole lot alike. Each of us took after a different parent, body-type-wise. We talk the same insofar as we are both from the midwest, but different insofar as I am a pretentious motherfucker that uses words like "insofar".

Not here - I'm the oldest & I'm obviously the "underachiever" - next sister is the most conservative, "overachieving" etc (a doctor) - next sister used to be the "out of control hellraiser" I guess but now she's settled down & had a kid & is also (approx.) "conservative & traditional" - youngest sis. = "quietly independent and diplomatic" (except when she's being "out of control hellraiser" ). I get on pretty good with them all but am closest to youngest sis. (common interests, music & such).

I have a lovely younger sister, who will be 30 in a couple of weeks (ARRRRRRRGHHHHH!). She has the worst taste in music of anyone I know. She has a Dublin geordie accent.

i've got a younger brother i don't get on with because we have, if anything, TOO MUCH in common. we used to compete over everything - school sports [my Intermediate School soccer team was in the same leage as the local Junior mixed XI...oh the shame...], music, parental love... Imagine being rubbished by a scrawny 15 year old for liking the Dead C's 'Eusa Kills' [their most "pop" album, apparently]!

we do, however, have practically our own language of in-joke phrases and Simpsons dialogue.

John: ... so we found this tiny little village. It was so pretty, but almost plastically pretty ... it looked like ... do you remember Sylvanian Families? [range of humanised woodland creatures that lived in twee Swiss Alps/ American Colonial houses]

Me: I had loads of Slyvanian Families. [sings] Only from Tomy. But I used to make them do interesting things. They used to flee oppressive regiemes and set up hospitals and resistance movements.

John: That is so you. You're such an only child.

Me: What?

John: All my Transformer's did was kill my brother's Transformers. You take girly squirrels and turn them into freedom fighters. All the only children I know are either selfish and demanding like Donny, or have madly over-active imaginations, weird in a good way, like you and Emma.

DOES HE SPEAK THE TRUTH?

I have one elder brother and we get on a whole lot better now that he lives hundreds of miles away and I hardly ever see him. this means that it is good when I do see him.

One younger sister. We didn't get along at all while growing up, but now that she and I are adults (chronologically if not psychologically) we get along a lot better. (It helps that she's in danger of turning into a 12-CDs-a-year person, and every so often asks my advice about music.)

I sometimes wish I'd had a brother, because men are such a mystery to me, but friends of mine with brothers say it doesn't help, they also can't explain men.

Anna, I'd never imagine you were an only child. More of an only-person, if that makes sense? You seem incredibly independent.

I'm another only child. (Mom had to have an emergency hysterectomy when I was two, so that was the end of that.) I was one of those children who were essentially little adults and now I'm really independent, though I did crave siblings when I was growing up. I think I would've loved being a middle child -- having an older, cooler brother and a younger sister to get along with would've been awesome. But I've become too accustomed to being an only child now.

I get on better with them now that I did when I was younger. I went to boarding school, they didn't, so we missed out on some of each others' childhoods as a result. We've caught up now, and I'm proud to call them my family.

They got divorced, my dad got remarried, and he and his second wife had a boy and girl.

We all get closer in some ways now that we're adults. I don't feel very close to my older brother, but I like him.

I consider the first "batch" my real siblings (we grew up together) and my little brother and sister my half siblings (we spent summers together but they're a decade younger than me). In a way I'm the youngest, but I also have younger siblings. I've sort of felt like an aunt to my younger siblings.

It looks like he's coming out the other end. He's going back to college, part-time, and moving into his own aparment. I'm cautiously optimistic.

When he's lucid, he's a hell of a lot of fun - very much your typical skate-punk kid. He's also a great guitar player. When he's delusional, though, all bets are off.