Giftedness and Bipolar

I don't know if I would consider myself gifted, I am very acute in reading, writing, and english, I always tested well above the average and was always ahead in my reading, it use to drive my teachers in grade school and high school nuts until I was placed in higher level courses for those subjects. I always found it hard to achieve in school though, and am just know learning how to be a better student in college, in high school I was taken aside again and again by teachers telling me I could do better if I could just focus.

I think there is a gift in having any mental illness, there is a high cost though, I suffered a lot for my ptsd and bipolar disorder, but I am able to have a diffrent point of view on things it gives me a diffrent look on the world, there is a postive and negative to everyting, it's maintaing that balance that is improtant. but if there was a magic cure for my bipolar I wouldn't take it, I do plan to start medication to help balance the more negative effects, but in the end I wouldn't trade any of the experinces i've had with the disorder, even the most miserable ones.

lol course this is just my two cents

Many blessings to all and many hugs too!
Typo

I was always in the gifted classes in school. I'm assuming I took an IQ test, but I was never told the number. I barely ever studied - I once took an essay test on a book I'd never read and got a B. Giftedness has not translated into success for me either. Right now I can't even find a menial job.

I was in show choir, marching bad (taught myself the mellophone), concert band (taught myself the bassoon) and jazz band (taught myself the baritone sax). I was in the State Youth Symphony, but all that went to crap after a major depressive episode where I stopped caring, which was followed by a hypomanic episode where I ended up pregnant at 15.

Perhaps there is a creative drive that comes with the highs of bipolarism, but is it worth all the downside? I feel like I'm constantly running over other people who aren't as intellectually agile. I love being known for having a quick wit, but not necessarily for not knowing when to give it a rest.

newbob, that's an excellent point. I am the same way, but I (in general) have a hard time when I'm talking to other people and feel like I almost always alienate them. Its not that I am smarter than anyone, but I don't think the same way that most regular people I meet.