Taking it Personal

So many wonderful friends and family members know that our family lives with mental illness. Dustin lives with it each and every day with no relief, his illness and his self-medication choices put him in a state of hopelessness.
We have gone through so many crisis, hospitalizations, living changes, financial stresses, emotional strains as a family that when someone say's "So how's it going, how is Dustin?" that I have to internalize what I am going to say, how I am going to say it and not sound like the world is crashing in on top of our whole family. That is not to say that we do not appreciate that people are concerned and really want to know because they love our family, it is just that it is really hard to be verbal about such a static situation. "Somedays are better than others.", "We live each day as it comes.", "Horrible", "Somewhat stable.", "I really do not know, we have not seen or heard from him.", "Good, he is really trying.", "He's in hospital.", "He's on the street.", "He's using.", "Pray for his safety." These are some of my responses and they run the gamut.
It's is not that we do not want to talk about what we go through, but sometimes I feel we share too much or too little. We have hope in our lives that we try to live out each day. A hope that our son will want to recover, a hope that research will find better medicines for bipolar illness, a hope that he will turn from street drugs and surrender.
So if you know us and ask us "How is Dustin doing?", expect any number of responses for that moment, but it is just for that moment.