grizmom and everyone else have said it so well - I couldn't have said it better. But just one more thing. Bipolar, and for me Panic and Anxiety Disorders, which most beepers have too, is a disease for life - even though within our lives we can make enormous strides. I say that because a person (as I have done) may turn back social offers again and again, and its simply because they do not have the functionality to participate, even in a conversation, rather than them not wanting contact, not loving you etc. So what I would have loved to have happened in my life is that people would have had the generosity of spirit to give me a chance in the Long Haul, rather than to cut me off after I have turned back several invitations (and one of these was my sister in law, who is a clinical psychologist). This is an illness that took me nearly to my death, so it is not, obviously, a slight or an offence when I turn back social invitations when one is dealing with a genuinely life-threatening illness, when one of its manifestations is the lack of functionality to participate socially. And of course in the Long Haul, what we really need are committed caring individuals in a social support network. You have so much to offer your Bipolar fiends.

I loved what someone said about making "TV dates", or simply a cuppa coffee or tea. That is the less pressured end of the social spectrum than going out for dinner in a pub or restaurant, or even for dinner at someone's house, which is even more pressured - its their turf, there can be children and intense interactions between parents and kids. Or go to the flicks togther, where there is chitchat before and after, but much less pressure to "perform" socially.

Thank you, on behalf of Bipolar people for asking these questions - you should be cloned. I have had non of the above in my relationships with family and friends - all of those relatiionships have disintegrated due to my illnesses and I have also had to turn some family away who won't get help for their own addictions or mental illnesses. It is profoundly lonely and isolating.