I've started a similar thing. My girlfriend is possibly bipolar. At the very least, ADHD. I've seen her in what appears as a manic state, because I've been there too.

But I asked her how she gets through the depression and guilt, and she told me that her mother (and others) had told her so often to just "get over herself" that she internalized it. She got in the habit of telling herself to "get over it." And she's been able to move forward and accomplish so much that I couldn't even dream of.

Me on the other hand, was left to fend for myself. I never was told to stop being a child... So I never did.

But I've been trying this "get over it" thing, and in states of real deep guilt or malaise, it helps snap me out... And at the very least I tell myself to "just do something, don't just sit here feeling sorry for yourself -- you're an adult, you can take care of yourself."

It's helped me. But it took me years of building a thicker skin to be able to handle it. Had I told myself to get over it a year ago, I would have fallen apart.