BlueInanna, there are people who cycle (pretty much) continuously or they still have rather severe problems when not "up" or "down". The more towards schizophrenia in the psychotic spectrum, the more chronic the disorder is, generally. But I can relate to some people always seeing every belief you have or action you take, every joy you experience, as a symptom: can't we just be joyful or saddened or impulsive or angry, driven or hopeful, like anyone else!?

DesigningWoman, I like your post! My psychiatrist is both very much normal (as in, when taking some essential features, there are pretty much as many people expressing/having them more pronounced as there are who express/have them less pronounced). Of course, it depends what you see as essential features. I like her for that (and her being very understanding, knowledgeable). To have a reference. She doesn't have to know that I am sceptical about ever being normal or that I that I don't want to be. When she ups a dose of one of my meds, intended to make me normal, it doesn't do it in a way I see as normal, but it does make me more clearheaded: that's what she sees as normal. It just depends on what you important.

But we are all pretty all messed up, yes. Especially those so normal that they hang on to that so fiercely that they develop such neuroticism that they question everything they do and they might think they might go crazy at every setback or what they think of as indiscretions. Bottom line: if they don't have enough problems already, they invent them. Society is full of them.

University especially is full of messed up people.

I pretty much only have friends that are messed up in some way. They also pretty much all have a mostly hyperthymic temperament, so I am considered pretty normal around them, most of the time. There may be a stigma on mental illness where their parents or they themselves come from, but they are far more accepting of differences between people and people having times where they have to recharge where they will continue to support you and let you be, waiting for you at the other end, without thinking too much of it.

I can totally relate to the bits about being supposedly lazy. It has made my life extremely hard: I, like I think per se all of us, was unable to explain my emotions, thoughts and behaviour and couldn't control them, but thinking one doesn't have control is the biggest taboo in many (mostly Western) societies. It is what most people don't want to talk about, scared it will deflate their ego.

However, actually being lazy, just taking your time to rest, during depression, accepting you need to recharge, can make the worst of (steady and without severe insomnia) depressions far more mild, quite peaceful and even comfortable.

We can just as well be how others see us, if it makes life easier. Some people just have to believe everyone is always in full control.

Edit:
Same as being too lazy to learn foreign languages like everyone else, being dyslexic.
I am blessed having two native languages, I am a (psycho)linguist, but not for the world can I remember lots of (seemingly) arbitrary words.