I had an excellent job and quite a good salary when I got sick. A family, too. That was 15 years ago. Now, I live off a tiny fraction of what I used to make. I have lost virtually everything and virtually everyone to this illness. My dad, however, has stood by my side, maybe not literally, but in other ways and he has helped me enormously. I'm a middle-aged man. But I needed help. So grateful he could provide it.

Almost everyone gets sick at some point in their lifetime. We just often do that earlier in life and our illnesses are invisible and incurable. There is no blood test for bipolar disorder--yet. You are dealing with way, way more than the average person your age. It's unfair to compare yourself to them. As I was saying in a related post the other day, when I was healthy, my goal might have been to develop a cool new product and travel to wherever cool place to help release it. Now, today, my goal is to sleep tonight. That's it. I'll have more goals tomorrow. But for now, that's it. I'd like to sleep. That would be awesome.

Remember who you are now. Remember what you have had to do to get where you are. Be proud of what you've accomplished. And everything will fall into place.