I can be horrifically depressed, wanting to die and thinking about crashing my car into a tree at 80 MPH, and yet I get up and go to work every day and do what I need to do. It's called "presenting well", and I'm an expert at it. I'll be going totally crazy on the inside, and all that shows on the outside is unusual quietness and being withdrawn.

Mania is not so easy to hide, although I can mask it pretty well in the hypomanic phase and only people who know me really well can tell that I'm ramping up. Some folks have told me they would've never guessed I'm bipolar because I appear so "normal". LOL