I think it's important to know what kind of environment works best for you. Both my brother and husband have ADHD and neither of them can work in the scenario you have described that you ended up walking away from. My brother works in the corporate world but he is constantly traveling so that works well for his need for motion. My husband is in the construction business and for a while he was bartending at night too and both those jobs keep him in motion.

My therapist's wife has ADHD and so does his son. His wife has a genius IQ so having ADHD doesn't mean a person is not intelligent enough. My therapist told me that what helps his son fair better at paying attention is they have him sit on one of those huge bouncy balls while he is learning or watching TV. LOL, after he shared that with me and I sat with my husband that night and saw him fidgeting as he tends to be so restless and noisey, all I could think of is how a huge bouncy ball might help him too. I was actually thinking that perhaps if you had some kind of vibrating pad that you could sit on while you work it actually may have a calming affect on you.

Ugh, being cooped up with a presence hovering over you with what you describe can most definitely be a challenge. No wonder you are so stifled. Having Bipolar can also present an additional challenge of it's own and that can take time to control better when it comes to finding the right medication and dose to make it more manageable. I have a family member that struggles with that challenge and once I learned what it was a lot of things made more sense.

I think your venting here gave you an outlet you needed. Sometimes we all need a good vent.