Are you accepting of your diagnosis? Yes, mostly because I don't think it affects me as much as some others have experienced.

How old were you when diagnosed? I was 12 when I was diagnosed manic-depressive by a school mandated psychiatrist visit. I was 25 when I was diagnosed by T with major depressive disorder/hypomania. So I'm not really usre.

Current treatment choice/why? Counseling. I'm at a relatively stable place in life without much action or interaction on my part. Counseling works well for me.

Did your lifestyle change since being diagnosed? At that age, I was too young to understand the impact of a diagnosis (nor did I believe the pDoc and my family ignored the diagnosis and never followed it up with any care or treatment). So, no my lifestyle didn't change in the way that it would seem. The fact that it didn't change led me to both the exceptionally good and exceptionally bad coping skills I currently have. After 're'diagnoses, my lifestyle changed because I was never sure if my behavior was normal or part of my 'diagnosis'. Once I stopped caring about that, and started caring about coping - things actually got much better.

Your opinion of meds vs alternate treatment? I don't believe in the use of medications for many reasons and because of this I have chosen the 'alternative' treatment of nothing at all.

Level of education? did Bipolar affect your abilities? Bachelor's Degree, and at the time I would have said no, but I went through a pretty large period of "I don't care about anything" and looking back I would attribute that and the "I can't focus because i'm too hyper" moments to it.

Do you work, if so where? Yes, at a hospital. Part time.

Family life? Who do you live with, how do you all cope with this disorder? I live with my mom, moved back after college. They know that I am 'moody'/'crazy'/'weird' but ignored the diagnosis back then and know nothing of the diagnosis now.

Do you feel your quality of life has been increased or decreased since
experiencing Bipolar Disorder? Decreased in many ways but increased in that it's helped me find my true friends.