Though it sounds like an interesting question, i'm not sure I understand, quite, what it means. In what way would BP be a mask? I think that in certain ways my medicated self is a bit like a mask, in that my meds make me a bit numb and mask my personality....

But maybe that's not what you meant?

My husband, mom, dad, and a really really good friend. That's it! My brother's don't even "know" the real me. Sad isn't it?

The only people who see through my mask are my three children. They love me for who I am, high or low.

I guess it could be taken several different ways-up to you in terms of how you interpret it.
For me, I feel it masks my "true" personality when I have epsiodes and people judge me based on them and cannot forget about it once I become stabilized on meds.

Sorry - that was for linacat.

Yeah I see what you mean. it's actually a beautiful thought if you think about it. I mean we're kind og like chameleions (spelling?), we change all the time, and we hide behind the colors/ the mask because maybe we just want to fit in and not stand out too much.

Hi there,
I know what you mean.for me its more of a will they still love me if I let them in my world.I let a few in and not all were accepting but there were a few,and those are the ones that matter.They are the ones that keep me going regardless if I'm not accepted by others.Remember people fear what they dont understand.Hope this Helps,God Bless

My husband my kids and thats it.

The rest of the world sees a different MASK all together as they are whom I disassociate from so I am who I need to be in that situation.

i wear a different mask for everybody i know. i call it putting on a show. sometimes i feel like they wouldn't Love me with out the show. so i keep it up. and it gets so confussing that i don't even think I know who i am. sometimes i think God is the only one who really knows me. and He's probally sicken by me.

Thanks, callee, for clarifying for me. Yes, i do feel that the illness sometimes makes me project a behavior that isn't really me, what i am inside. So I do feel i have to hide myself.

I also hide my true self from family because i feel quite vulnerable in showing my real self to others. They definitely wouldn't relate....

My husband, mum and dad and best friend, I love my mask because I can hide behind it in social situations that I feel really uncompfortable in :))

My husband, mother and my friends here are ones who know the woman behind the mask. It's an interesting question and I never really thought about it before.

At the moment hardly anyone can see through this depressive mask. Sometimes I wonder if I am always either depressed or manic. I veer between passionate, enthused, gregarious and apathetic, introverted, dull. I dont actually know who I really am any more. Right now its like I can only be honest with people on DS. V sad.

I like to call it an excuse...JK.

This is a toughy. Quite frankly I think that it helps make you who you are. The bipolar person will be really peppy one day and full of life--enthusiastic with desire to learn about monarch butterflies, Persian food and carpentry and you will catch them later on not even wanting to talk to you. It's one of those thingamajigs which you must say "to each their own" to. The world needs all sorts of people to circulate as it should. We are just that group.

-JW

morning all,

yes I may be shy when I first meet people "usually" I try to be myself. the ones the see me for who I am all the time are some of my friends and my parents. granted I may not like the opinion @ times, but that usually gives me an insite on what I personally need to work on.