I wish I had some more practical advise right now, but I really want to step in and say that you should not judge the pain of your illness through objective measures but rather through subjective ones.

If you are in pain, you are in pain. Just because you have never lost control of your actions doesn't mean that you're in any less pain.



Otherwise, I would say to not hyperfocus on how bipolar has taken away a chunk of your life you simply can't live again -- focus on the new experiences you have available to you now as a young adult. You have so much ahead of you, you've barely lost any youth.