How can i help them understand?

So i had a chat with my best friend tonight (i live with her and her parents) and i tried to explain about bipolar in particular bipolar depression, and i tried explaining how sometimes i can't physically get out of bed and that gettin up and jus being awake is draining, mentally, physically and emotionally. She asked how it was emotionally tiring and so i told her that havin to think and all the thoughts going on in my head are so immense and intense at times its so draining. She admits that she doesn't understand how it can be or how doing a bit of house work and ironing can be tireing. How can i explain it to her. How can i help her see that its not a choice i have, its not somethin i can control. Any advice, barr tellin her to read a book on bipolar, would be greatfully received! Thanks!

I don't know where I posted my best illustration or if you've seen it so here it goes:
it's like the cartoon where the road runner's running along super fast and looks down and there's no more ground..so it falls.. then the coyote comes and drops an anvil on it's head. That's what it's like to have bipolar disorder.

how about using the info about bipolar here or at another website using the symptoms that are mentioned? that way it's short to read but gets across your point to them.
hope this helps.

Ask her this question. What was the most dreadful day that you can remember in your life? Was it the loss of your first love or a death of someone, or maybe losing a job you had put everything into and got fired etc. If she can give you an answer tell her...that is how it feels suffering from bi-polar. Our emotions can take us down to the darkest place in our mind imaginable. Get her to talk about her dreadful day, she must have at least one....hell every one does. Get her to "remember" the feelings she had and tell her.....multiply that by....say 10. Tell her that is how your feelings are when YOU are down because bi-polar enables our brains to produce that magical chemical to help us "get over it" as so called "normal" ppl do.

I hope that helps. Man.....I don't know how I said that. Just happened.

I don't know about this. It may seem overdramatic and really out there. Many people might have offended by comparing death of their loved one to "I just feel depressed, even when nothing happened".

These comparisions will do more harm than good.

Directing the person to a good resource and info about bipolar is a much better option and it will not cause any bad feelings.

Perhaps it would be best not to mention the death of a loved one, but the feeling of major loss, lasting for days or months with no apparent cause outside of biology does capture the depression of bipolar for me.