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What a great thread!
In theory, from what I've read, there are no particular quirks or personality characteristics that people with bipolar disorder have in common (meaning, when baseline). But I do see a lot of people asking if x quirk is part of bipolar -and in the responses, some people will end up sharing it, others not.
I think it's part of a general/normal desire to not feel alone (in our quirks, etc.) and also maybe issues of identity specific to bipolar. I know that when I'm in the midst of an episode, I don't feel 'me' -and that can be very confusing. Was x behavior 'purely' a product of that episode, or is it actually a part of who I am, just on steroids when ill? I find it all disconcerting -and hard to explain.
I think maybe a fundamental part of the journey of bipolar, is parsing out what *is* the bipolar, and what is not. What personally comforts me, is the more things about me that are *not* 'bipolar' the better. Though I am comforted by knowing that I share similar experiences with others when in the throes of an episode. I guess I compartmentalize it as 'me' versus 'me' when 'bipolar'/in an episode.
Maybe something that could help, is to keep in mind that you (everyone with BP) has x, y quirks, x, y personality characteristics, x, y history *and* has bipolar disorder. So, in this context, bipolar does not encompass one's whole identity (in which case, quirks and personality characteristics would be enveloped in it), it is one aspect (that yes, affects others perhaps), but the rest, all the rest, that makes you-you, is.... unique to you, quite apart from the bipolar.
I feel that, for example, if I didn't have bipolar disorder, I would still have the same quirks, likes, dislikes, personality as I do now. Bipolar influences some of these things, but doesn't truly change them, or determine them.
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