Encourage the people closest to you who you need support from to read a book or two about bipolar like "an unquiet mind" They will empathize better and it can start a useful dialogue so you can explain how your life is just like the books and give examples. So many times the people who care about you don't "see" the bipolar in you and you have to spell it out for them and explain things like the fact that you isolate when you're depressed or try to mask it and that's why you never seem depressed. Just an example. There are many other parallels you can draw.