I started getting sick when I was 36....symptoms started showing up. It was terrible.....in euphoric mania I was on cloud nine. On a natural high it was fun staying up late and hanging out BUT your thought process is off. I would hang out with people I just met that night! We'd go to night clubs together and house parties. Once I almost got raped. Again NOT thinking clearly. I just liked being around the scene. I was not much of a drinker. I shopped my savings account away. I was then diagnosed after I almost got raped I went to find out why I wasn't thinking right. I was seen two or three times then I was told I had bp1. I was taken off the antidepressant and put on a mood stabilizer which made me flip. I was mean as a junkyard dog. I was running people off the road for driving too slow. I cussed a lady out in the grocery store for walking in front of me too slow. I had a lot of energy and could not stand "slow". I went back to the pdoc and told her I needed help. She gave me another stabilizer. At the end they had to put me on two mood stabilizers and one AP to try and contain my mean mania. In spring and summer I get a little happy mania but not the euphoric anymore. In the winter I have some SAD. My whole life was turned upside down due to this condition. I had a pretty good job I had been on for a few years. Good benefits. I liked some of my co-workers. We would go out to lunch together. I had a breakdown at work (right before being diagnosed). I lost my job. I was able to get unemployment but then after had to move out of state for "so called family support ". I applied for SSDI in Nov 2012 and won in Oct 2016. I had to keep fighting and reapplying.
My heart goers out to those with MI "if" there content with having it cool. But for me no the hell I'm not happy or ok with having bp. I have accepted it. But I'm not flipping cool with it.
Creativity.....I scrapbook and knit