I honestly don't know for sure. I've lost a lot to this disease---a career, a house and lifestyle I loved, and a good deal of my dignity. OTOH, it makes me creative and funny and quirky, and I've made a lot of friends I'd probably never have met if it weren't for the bipolar. Sometimes I even love feeling things so intensely, because it makes me feel alive. But I also wonder sometimes what it would be like to be a "normal" person who never goes through depression or anxiety or mania. I have this one friend who loves me dearly but cannot comprehend for the life of her what depression is. She asks me sometimes what it's like to feel all the feelings so vividly. I try to tell her as best I can, but she doesn't get it. By the same token, I don't know what it is to NOT have bipolar.