Hmmm. Enjoy wouldn't be the word. I accept it (no choice, almost 35 years of strong evidence, so would be silly not to) and I have no idea who I would be without it. It's integral to my life experience and wasn't dx'd till in the neighborhood of 25 years into having it (I can never remember what year it was! Even looking it up, I keep forgetting, lol.), so that's the more familiar.

I have had some GREAT times hypomanic (my hypomanias tend to be VERY obvious), can't deny that. BUT. A lot of dysphoria too. And the depressions soul-crushing and long. (There has been improvement with meds). The price of the good is VERY steep. The bad sides are the way more common manifestations, so I'd have to say no, I don't enjoy it. Though will admit to loving GOOD hypomania. But who could NOT?!

*****

(Re: artist thing... I am STRONGLY creative and artistic. I do think that the wiring may somehow influence that, as the percentages indicate some sort of correlation. Though not direct causation. Plenty of people with BP don't have the creativity thing. And lots of people are creative that don't have BP. So it's just not that simple. Some of us just got a lucky "side effect" along with it.

That said, it's really hard for me not to list it among positive "BP attributes" for myself since it's my favorite part of myself(!) And I enjoy it VERY much. But there are other things to be credited for that too, so I try not to. Just because it's not so simple as all that. Sigh. Wish it was(!)

Wish I could share it with those who didn't draw that card. I DO think a simplistic view of a creativity link and romanicization are a BIG part of why people do this whole "wannabee" thing (which is SO f'd up). Which is another reason I try to be careful talking about it.)