I could have written this myself. I feel like my functioning has really been affected by my bipolar. But apparently for some people going from straight As to half As, half Bs is not a steep enough drop (it is if you're trying to get into med school!), having a limited social life is not an issue because academics and family life is more important, and not feeling alive is not a problem because I don't look like a zombie. Grrr.

At least mental health professionals can see that something is wrong now. When I talked to my high school's social worker my sophomore year, she told me I couldn't be depressed because my weight had not significantly changed, and though I was fatigued, my sleep was normal. I wonder if anyone ever told her that the DSM requires 5/9 symptoms...and that means that some people won't have every symptom.

Okay. I'm done with my rant against people who won't even read this. And you're right; they have the purest intentions. They're trying to comfort us by saying that we can't be sick... but that is no comfort when we feel that we must either be sick or so worthless and severely flawed that we can scarcely be called human.

I do agree that you should be as out as possible. The world needs to know that there are smart and successful people who grapple with bipolar disorder. It would decrease the stigma against MI and encourage people who need help to get it. Just be wise. You wouldn't want to limit your job options because some people can't get over their prejudices.

Sillyfab, thanks for the extrovert's perspective. I'll admit that I usually assume that the "social butterfly" types are super-confident. Thanks for reminding me that I shouldn't make unsupported judgments, when I get so angry at others for assuming things about me simply because I am quiet. I hope that once you get your diagnosis you can find your way into remission relatively fast.

Innerzone, I hung out with the AP kids too. We called ourselves the "AP Cult"...Haha. Most of my acquaintances from those days are off studying engineering now. Thankfully I had the stupidity to take calc-based physics my senior year. My hatred of it protected me from suffering a similar fate. (disclaimer: I have nothing against engineers. Engineering is just not for me.)

I think intelligence is a fascinating concept. I'm book smart, and I can reason verbally quite well. However, I find visual-spatial stuff quite hard...which causes me to get lost often. Haha.

I'm going to start a thread on the concept intelligence sometime soon; I'll say a lot more there. I think that intelligence is a concept that 100 different people will define 100 different ways. The differences may be subtle, but they're there, and I believe they have a significant influence on behavior.