You mean like RIGHT NOW?! It's something currently going on and with my thoughts looping around about it, I remembered your thread title. And in reading through, I think some of the things are different, but probably related. Like acknowledgement. You can be taken advantage of w/o acknowledgement. But it can also be with acknowledgement. All praise heaped on. Which seems good, but it's often these same advantage-takers that get nasty if you don't agree to everything they want. You're either great or horrible, but either way you're expected to be their puppet. Grrrr. But I digress.

I don't really feel it's a "bipolar thing" except how it's likely to happen when you're revved up and taking everything on (because you can do it all!) It's just too easy for people to take advantage of that situation.

Having said that, here's my twist. I get taken advantage of in the form of being expected to pick up the slack. Being told that...Ready for this? Because I'm bipolar, I'm supposed to "understand how it is" (because of knowing flooring depression and not being able to deal with the world) when someone goes MIA on the responsibility front. I TRY to leave things, but it's hard because I care. And they know this full well about me. And what really spirals me? Overwhelm. And it doesn't take much. I'm really not lazy. I just.shut.down. I can't think and my head becomes a mishmash of looping half thoughts and white noise. Depending on the situation, sheer panic can set in because I "should be able to do this! It's so f'in simple!" And I can't. People really don't get this or understand how "little" (in their view) it takes.

So anyhow, yes, I get taken advantage of quite a bit, but not because of BP. It's because of the usual MO: Too often being too nice for my own good (but I'm working on that Haha.), not speaking up for myself, being hard-wired to be a helper and not let people down. It's a recipe for being taken advantage of. It's also a recipe for overwhelm. The BP only really comes in in making the resulting overwhelm more problematic.