Hi all - have been lurking on the forum for sometime but decided to register. Was diagnosed in Spring 2014 (at age 32) with bipolar I disorder after mania/psychosis got me admitted to the hospital. The year before I had started a high-stress job that necessitated moving and living apart from my partner of at the time almost 9 years. I think these changes precipitated mania/psychosis. I am not sure when I started being bipolar before that - even as a small child, I had an eating disorder, was moody, was suicidal in my teens. I always thought that was just life though - I probably haven't totally adjusted to the fact that these were warning signs for bipolar.

One struggle for me - I grew up in a chaotic household with very troubled parents but I used to be the one who held it together and persevered and had it 'together' more than my parents did. Somehow when my diagnosis came about, I felt diminished by the fact that I was the one with the most severe diagnosis.

I am starting to get over all of these things, but now I feel like I might want to rethink how career oriented I was in the beginning of my life before my diagnosis. I have thought this on and off, but I am starting to think I'd like to make a plan for a kind of job I can work reasonable hours that would be good for keeping me employed, productive, financially secure if possible even while coping with bpI.