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alexandra_k: i'm not sure what you mean by 'internalised' and 'externalised' experience. do you mean 'negative' and 'positive' symptoms or something else?

I'll provide you with two examples. Bear in mind I'm far more familiar with "schizophrenic" experiences than I am with "bipolar" experiences -- I sincerely hope I'm not off in my understandings.

A young woman I knew went through a bipolar episode. It lasted several weeks during which she had an abundance of energy; spent a very great deal of money, and entered into a number of short-term sexual relationships. In other words, she went out a lot, she interacted with a lot of people, and; she participated in a number of activities in the outer world. It was very much an external experience.

In my own experience, I got very quiet and became very withdrawn from the outer world. I came into a room, locked the door behind me, and spent the next few weeks there -- I was entirely caught up in an inner drama that was unfolding within me and that seemed entirely real to me. I had very little human contact with others. This was very much an internal experience. ( The articles here describe my own experience very, very well.)

It's worth noting that there was some common ground between our experiences. For example, we both experienced stages that might be labelled as "manic" where we ate and slept very little. For her, that was when she was spending the most money, going to the most parties, and having the most relationships. For me, I had somehow found a means of going "out" by going "in" -- I was out somewhere in the depths of the cosmos dancing with god. Some aspects of her experience were also deeply spiritual.

So... there's some common ground there but also some very different aspects of our experience that perhaps could be classified as "introverted" and "extroverted". Both of us had periods that could be classified as "mania" and "psychosis" but we each responded differently to those phases. Was this because she was having a "bi-polar" experience and I was having a "schizophrenic" experience or was this because she's an extrovert and I'm an introvert?

It's difficult to say. Either way, I'm out of speculation time at the present moment.