In the beginning, when everything came to a head and I was finally diagnosed- it consumed me. Whether it be from fear or just feeling sorry for myself. I had the life from hell and fought to get to a good place and the backhanded slap came.

I struggled and meds changed as quickly as my moods.

As I settled down and came to terms with all of it I became more pro-active in my choices and mindset. In the end we could find no med combo to keep up with the rapid cycling without putting me in a coma. I decided to try without meds.

I work very hard on being aware and I fight the good fight when things get rough. So, I understand your post perfectly and I think it's good to reflect on how we see this disorder and how we cope with the changes it brings in our day to day.

i don't disagree. i do think people give this disease more power than need be.

And then there comes a truly psychotic episode..and you lose who you are

It happens

I know the power this illness has - it has ripped my life to shreds many times over. I didn't even know what was wrong with me for over 40 years. But now that the illness has a name and I can take meds for it things have been more stable. But I still know that the illness has an effect on me, with or without meds.

Some people can be 'borderline' low IQ.
Others are severely mentally retarded.

Some people who are on the high end of the Autism spectrum can function quite well in the world.
The unlucky ones that are all the way at the lower end of the Spectrum will need lifelong care and will not even be able to make their needs known.

Some people who have Bipolar Disorder manage to live productive and stable lives and are, in many ways, even helped to excel by their condition.

Others are so severely impacted in negative ways that they are unable to expose themselves to any significant degree of stress or conflict without paying for it big time and stability is something they know very little about.

Some people give this illness much more power over their lives than it deserves.

Others try their best to really live life to the fullest and are fucked six ways to Sunday by what Bipolar does to them, no matter what!!!! Poor creatures.

I agree with you 100%

I CHOOSE to not allow this BIPOLAR DISORDER rule my life....

I am in CONTROL of my thoughts.... I just need to use the right tools to think positively....

The power of positivity.... a friend I know has steered me that way...

not just 'stigma' setting people apart though, Wiccan. My last manic episode (that resulted in protracted hospitalisation blah blah) I was told never to have children (hard thing to hear from doctors)..luckily I knew from severity of episode when I was 16 that I could never have children..blow would have been worse otherwise.

Bad episodes are just that- bad.

People who want to exaggerate their own situation are a different thing, I suspect. Sure it happens but not especially with mental illness

Also- what bipolar people are you acquainted with? In my life their are family members (one currently in hospital against will, psychotic) & people with bipolar I've encountered in hospital when very unwell- offensive to dismiss what they all contend with

Sounds a little like 'it is in their heads' i.e./ stigma

We are only as sick as we think we are? Is that the main point of all this? What happens to me sometimes is that the bipolar eclipses the rest of me......................it gets dark out.

Mental illness to me is an odd animal. I rather think of it as a combination of a learning disability and an actual physical illness. I am not saying that buy into Big Pharma and I'm not saying that there aren't folks out there with gifts or what not, but to me, its like because there is this social or behavioral learning disability that either we get traumatized, or stressed out or there is a shock to our system that everything in the endochrine, hormonal and nervous system gets compromised.

I get confused a lot. Some people on radical forums tell me that we are somehow magical, or super intelligent or we are the humans of the future or that we are victims of social oppression and society just wants robots or that the culprit is our posining of the environment, or it is sexism or Western Imperialism or whatever.

Meds do help, I think, but I also think that Big Pharma likes to play games and make big profits.

The only truth that I could eke out of the entire issue that I could honestly put on this forum and the other is that madness appears to be a sensitivity to societal stressors and requisites and that a light medication regimens, nutrition, excersise, artistic pursuit, a spiritual path that works for you, plenty of music and light and etc

Okay, from the evidence of the lady who just came into my office, we are not sick, just delicate.

Normals are not really normal.

A norm is nothing more than a statistical mean within a bellcurve.

Think-Ancient Maya-the "norm" of nobility--sacrifice, cocaine, indulgence-a societal "norm."

There really isn't a true norm, just convention or average.