Well, madisgram, if anyone hasn't figured this out by now I'd be a little surprised, but the background for all these question threads I start is myself and my own problems, and answers to questions that relate to those problems. These are my ways of asking for a hug, of expanding my understanding, of overcoming my mental troubles bit by bit through pieces of the puzzle that fall together.

My problems very much got in the way of my both seeing social rules and conforming to those I could see. My panic and anxiety were so overwhelming at times that everything else simply had to give way before them. Had to. And my dissociation, particularly when other people were around, made it very hard for me to observe others and understand from them correct tones of voice, body movements, conversational subjects, turn-taking, and even basic comprehension of what they said (I might have to ask many times over for them to repeat themselves until they gave up in disgust.)

I do think that mental afflictions of different kinds, whether your bipolar or my whatever, interfere with functioning as a "normal" member of society. And as I think is probably true for most everyone else, "normal" for me simply means most other people without highly distinguishing characteristics, neither at the high end nor the low end of any scale on any subject. They're most of the other people I (and possibly you) run up against in life. Whether in school, play or work or wherever. The word "normal" is neither a scientific term nor an opprobrious term. It's just Plain English. And everyone has a reasonable idea of what it means. Everyone for whom English was their first language, of course. Take care!