I have had a job since I was 18. I had my first bipolar cycle at 21 when I was in college. The depressive phase of my second cycle ended with me flunking out of grad school. (I'm a loser, I know) Then I got a job because I didn't really feel like being homeless or hungry!

I don't have constant bipolar cycles, so I worked and went back to school to do prerequisites for nursing school. That was 70 hour weeks with no episodes for over two years. I got married, went to nursing school. I had intermittent moderate depressive episodes but my relationship with my parents had fallen apart, and my mother in law was jealous of me taking her son's attention. Still graduated magna cum laude.

I've been a neonatal ICU nurse for 7 years and I love it. My job was something I clung to when suicidal, and fear of messing it up made me beg for help when I finally realized I was manic/bipolar after having my daughter. I was untreated and undiagnosed until that point.

I think the ability to work when bipolar depends on the individual. Some can, some cannot. Some people are just not going to be workers bipolar or not!