I don't know that anyone has a "normal" life per se.

I am married. We mostly do OK with some arguments here and there like all married couples. He doesn't quite get bipolar, but he's better than he was about it than when I was first diagnosed (he came into the marriage knowing I'd had an eating disorder and was diagnosed with depression). We have parenting challenges with my daughter who is super-smart but has a ton of sensory issues. He is more lax, and I am more strict. We really need to come together on parenting, but it is tough. Our 14th anniversary is August 4. I knew within 2 weeks of dating him that it would be a long-term relationship that would likely end in marriage. We were together just over a year when he proposed, and because I was overwhelmed with planning a wedding, a year later, we just finally eloped. I wouldn't do it differently. So we've been together around 16 years and have a 10 year old daughter.

Still, with BP, I can't work. I have tried and tried. Every job nearly causes me to go into the psych hospital. Maybe I could do something simple, but my resume overqualifies me for those jobs since I have an M.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology.

I haven't been hospitalized since grad school, around 2003, I think. I'm not counting medical hospitalizations like giving birth or emergency ulcer surgery.

I had one 6 month stint of stability. If I ever get back to something like that, I would be so happy. Otherwise, I am stuck with depression, mania, or the flat affect most meds give me (which usually causes me to get the bright ides to stop some or all of my meds at once).

This last month hasn't been too bad for me though, with a few off-days.