BP/schizoaffectiveorg me disorder good? Umm. No. I wish it never touched my life. Although I am happy with certain attributes of my life, I would NOT claim that BP brought that happiness about. To me, even if I am manic and seemingly happy, something evil lurks around the corner. So, No. There's nothing good about it.

These responses are amazing! I totally understand those of you who feel it is a curse and completely bad. I do too most of the time. I am mixed types so I'm never in a depressive or manic state for too long. ALWAYS cycling. Which I find super annoying. However, I do find that I am IMMENSELY strong because of BP. It has shown me that I love myself enough to fight it. In a way I'm grateful.

True SiRK!! Very true. We are strong because of it and we need to keep that in mind when we're feeling down.

I love mania. I feel sexy and confident. I have a lot of productive ideas and become more creative. I enjoy sex when I am manic (with my husband) and before I was married I had sexual partners and sex is just great all around while in mania. I would encourage safe sex of course and not with multiple partners. Just find that one person. Okay maybe I went way off topic.

I do understand about the higher feelings of self-esteem of mania and there are some other fun aspects of it but I look at it like a drug that the high is not worth the consequences in the end. I do believe it has made me a more compassionate human being and so less judgemental AND I found THIS place that has helped me to be more self-accepting than I ever have been!

I'm tired of having Bipolar. Can I just through it away or does it go in the recycle bin?

I found a good thing!! I found a good thing!!
Because of bipolar, I joined Daily Strength and in my second year of DS a guy named JStreet came on and we became good friends.
A year later we were married.
THERE!! I found a good thing from Bipolar.

Andy #3 My thoughts exactly. Mine can last for days. I can do everything I need to do. Clean the house till it's ssparkling. Take a long hot shower. I cook 2 big meals and divide into meal size portions and freeze them

I do the dinner cooking bc of the inevitable crash. I'm preparing for the devastation which will put me in the bed for days. Mike can just take out the dinner so he won't have to cook.

I'm not even sure how to answer this question.

It is a mental illness/disorder. Given a choice? Nah I would pass on having it. Nothing positive about it imo. The only thing that is positive is how I handle it.

I am a rapid cycling BP1. Its all fun and games until well its not. I tend to run at high the majority of the time but it is tiring and it ends up like groundhog day.

I have manic scrabbled egg brain syndrome from the constant racing and lack of sleep. idk still would rather not have it no matter how "good" I feel. It's the mind lying - leading one into a false state of reality.

I agree with acuriousfish, however, I think for the most part, we would all rather be up and overly happy, then to be down in the dark black hole. It's quite a dilemma to say the least. I talked to my doctor today who prescribes my Prozac but he doesn't prescribe the Lamictal I asked if he thought would help. He said it causes too many ups and then crashes in his opinion but he did say to talk with my Psychiatrist about it. I HAVE found that when my depression starts to take over, I put on my head phones, get my MP3 player and go for a very long walk and just listen to songs I love. Believe it or not, my emotional state is so much better when I get home. However, our weather has now changed so that is getting harder to do. The most important thing for those of us to know is really understanding the different types of bi-polar, what makes it worse and what can possibly help. I don't think feeling "superior" is a good thing, but I do think having good self esteem is important. And we ALL deserve to have that as well as knowing we are all deserving of happiness! Big Hugs GB

Dobes, I love your comment about wanting the throw your bipolar in the garbage or recycling bin :) And that's really sweet about that you and your husband met on here :)

There is nothing good about bipolar just how I handle it can be positive.

What I liked about manic state was that I felt no fear. Also felt self-confident and of course there was the hyper-sexual feelings! "Don't want no doctor! Don't want no nurse! I don't wanna get better--I just wanna get worse!" But of course when the mania gets worse, the paranoia comes and that's no fun at all.

You guys are all so cute! Dobie loved your comments! Married ! so sweet :)

And gramybear my boyfriend always encourages me to go on walks but when i'm in a depressive state its hard to move and hard to become motivated to do something positive. You know what I mean.. But I definitely believe that it helps your mood! music is therapy too and I cant get enough of it.