A bit of an uplifting note, since a lot of people have had bad experiences with BP and employment: There are some bosses/workplaces out there that are good with handling MI, and I'm blessed to work for one of them. We've never discussed it explicitly, but I have a feeling that my manic episode wasn't the first that my advisor has witnessed in his career. Due to physical distance (we work at different universities) we communicate by email and only see each other for a day here or there every few months. I burst open the manic floodgate this spring, sending an email that was full of amazing superb (and retrospectively absurd) ideas; reading it later, it must have been apparent that I was manic or drugged or something. He didn't engage or denounce the delusions and neutrally asked to talk on skype or something (a request that I ignored). I was off the handle for a month and a half, and he gave me the space to wig out and the time to recover. He was back in town for a day while I was quite manic and he just steered clear of me. Once I got stabilized and got myself together, we returned to work and the status quo. Things have been good between us since then. I try to communicate more often, which is probably for the better anyways. Here's hoping that things stay that way! Figured that with all the sad stories about employers I'd pitch in a happy one. :- )