WOW! I appreciate your responses for reaching out for help.
That's the first step in coming to terms with bp.
We all know the highs and lows of our disorder, some more severe than others.
It's important that you make sure you are properly diagnosed. BP is a hard one to recognize and is many times misdiagnosed, get more than one opinion. It's called Medical "practice", because so many don't bother with chemical imbalances. Just look at that idiot Tom Cruise...talk about a dumb ***!
Okay, here's some of the nitty gritty. Being put on the proper meds for YOU, now-a-days there's so many meds that claim to be a catch all for every disorder.
Next, it's called Bi-polar for a very good reason...it describes exactly what we experience....feeling overly happy for no particulare reason, engaging in conversation with anyone and everyone at speed so fast ppl can't keep up, your mind is moving in so many different directions we can't carry an articulate conversation. We exhibit destrutive behaviors like unprotected sex in the heat of the moment with many people. Bp's are highly creative...painting, drawing, writing songs and poems. We spend excessive amounts of money which most of us do not have the means to do that. We believe our selves to be invincable...like having the belief we are Jesus, God is talking to them and that they must tell everyone.
That being said...the higher we go...the harder we fall. That descent into despair, self loathing, suicidal thoughst and ideations (but allow me to clarify that statics show that it is the initial clawing our way out of hell, is when most bp's kill themselves...because they finally have the energy to do so.)
And on the top of that, we have all that mess we made in our high can be mortifying, embarrasing, humiliating and the scorn of others. BP is hardest on the ppl around us.

Okay, that being said, we are not "victims" of our disorder. BP is not who you are, it's what you have. We experience "normal" lives.
Learning about BP is the most important commitment to yourself. Knowledge is power.
Yes, oh how we love those highs...we sore beyond the stars and bring them back to share with others.

Being BP does not make your everyday feelings invalid. We just feel them more intensely, worse than everyone else. That nobody could possibly understand what we go through. But let me to tell you...pain is pain is pain. The cause for the pain or the joy may be different...but every human on the face of this planet experiences much of what we to too.

Solutions: Meds, keep trying til you find the right one.
When you're feeling "normal", create a soft place to fall...a good book, movies, comfort foods, excersize, eat healthy. For me, I like to be alone until the system has run it's cycle, but then again. I'm a rapid cycler.
I don't listen to music, as it provokes too many feelings, I watch funny movies to get me laughing (the best therapy of all!)

Im gonna end here for now, but I'd like to add one final statement...life comes down to choices, even if we need others to help us make the hard decisions...we can't always trust our own judgements.

I hope this helps even one person, then it's been worth it.

We'll Continue this subject as situations and cycles present themselves.

One final reinteration...what I believe saves me from falling all the way to the bottom of hell...prepare a soft place to fall. Then suddenly things don't get quite as bad as they use to be.

TgrsPurr, xo