I just sort of embrace my mental illness unabashedly, to the extent that it's a part of me, and I've had some wild and interesting and crazy times with it. It just is what it is.

Mental illness has existed throughout humanity's history, and I guarantee you that mania has been behind some of the more amazing and impressive parts of that history.

It's just that in modern times, in modern industrialized societies, not only is there an official name for it, but it's also much harder to survive with it. Life is a lot more complex and with a lot more demands than in past times, where you just had to focus on shelter, heat and food, or when you could roam freely and pick up odd jobs. You didn't need a good credit score, I.D., tax forms, references out the ***, or have to consider the rent bill, gas bill, water bill, phone bill, internet bill, health insurance, etc. Even work tends to be different, itself. You don't just need to show up, able-bodied and perform labor. You need to be dressed right, good hygiene, have your references, experience, education, carefully balanced social skills, a reliable vehicle, etc.

And I can assure as well that all of this change is not just harder on people with bipolar disorder, but harder on many people. It's not that bipolar disorder is new, or that it has somehow become scary, horrible or whatever since times past. It's just that the modern world in general has become more complicated, demanding, pigeon-holed and suffocating.

And I think as a result, some people see mental illness in others as some grave and awkward thing. No longer is Clarence just someone who occasionally has a ton of energy and gets really adventurous and needs their space; now Clarence is someone who can't function and thrive in life, a scene of awkward doom, a person who doesn't fit into a small and complex mold. Clarence has gone from wild and adventurous, albeit sometimes exhausting, to a leper.

But the reality is that Clarence has always been the same, regardless of how others would have viewed our hypothetical character in any time period. Clarence really is a person who gets bursts of energy, motivation, visions and adventure-lust and so on, but like many others, Clarence is just struggling to adapt to the modernized world.