You know you're bipolar when....

When you're feeling depressed you start in on the opposite-action thing hoping you'll kick-start a (hypo)manic phase just to knock out the depression.

When you believe you're the female side of Christ, and you believe your husband is Christ.

When you believe aliens are speaking to you and that you are the "chosen one"

For me it was...

When you make the mistake of letting a GP dabble in psychiatry, they give you an AD, and you go from a complete depressed mess to happy! happy! happy! bouncing off the walls in the space of 2 days and they don't realize that's a problem(!) And you're so damn happy not to be so damn depressed that you don't either! (For awhile...)

And... when your co-workers can't believe you got like 2 hours of sleep, because the lack of sleep doesn't even faze you and you're still kicking their a**es.

Or...
When you're up all night in the studio, then hop in a car to drive 8 hours to an event, rip down mountain passes shouting that Mario Andretti has NOTHING on you! Then you arrive, can't STFU for 3 days and wonder what is wrong with these people and their need for sleep.

Hahaha, yes! You had your clothes on though, right? Lol. (With me and the countertops, it was the only "normal" thing about it!)

"The context of point C"!!!! Who needs it?! Bunch 'a neanderthals!

I've been avoiding the depression ones ('cause they're no fun!), but....

...When you're so depressed you could suck the air out of an open-air stadium.

...When at an interview they ask, "where do you see yourself in 5 years?", and you have to make something up, because you suspect that, "I don't" isn't the kind of answer they're looking for.

When you decide to get engaged to someone you've dated for two weeks

You go to one of those network marketing meetings and decide in fact YES!
I am the next great network marketer and I WILL make $10K a month in 60 days or less...hell yeah, when do I start?!?!?!

When people get mad at you because you just aren't capable of being the non-stop happy ball of energy that they like. That even when you're baseline they still want that ball of energy back - let alone when you're depressed!

I don't really wanna go anywhere but I sure as heck don't wanna stay here!

When you do your weekly shop and decide to be healthy and buy only healthy foods. 2 days later you realise you have nothing you want to eat and go shopping again.

When you make a list of lists that you want to get done.

When you realise you have bought too many box sets on dvd and you don't actually have the time to watch them so you are left with a years worth of tv to watch.

Wow SpiritofaStorm and Angelic - those last two posts are TOTALLY ME almost all the time!

I love this thread. Thanks so much everybody for sharing. Two years ago my pdoc told me I was bipolar and I said "No I'm not"!! I came on these forums for awhile but drifted away. Two weeks ago my new pdoc said yes I am bipolar. I think he's right.

Your responses here made me realize that yes I am bipolar, and that I'm not alone. A lot of you do the very same things that I do.

I feel that I'm not alone in the world anymore and I feel validated. It's a very good feeling, one that I haven't had for years and years. I feel like I found a lot of new friends and a home here at psychcentral.

Thank you all so much.

You know you're bipolar when your whole entire family has done BP things. My grandpa ran away from home to "find himself" and abandoned Grandma and my Dad and aunt in 1917. The man was a genius and I always called him a dysfunctional genius. Now I realize he had BP1.
My aunt was a religious fanatic and wrote long letters with nothing but hymns and bible verses, using 6 sheets of paper and 5 carbons so she could send a copy of her letter to all of my family.
I think my Dad had what Dr. Ronald Fieve calls unipolar hypomania. He was gregarious, always happy, and an extremely smart business man. He made a fortune before he died. Too bad I spent all my inheritance when I bought a health food store that failed in 2004.
I do things like getting involved in Amway, and 6 other MLM's because I'm a financial wizard (not) and I believe I'll be rich beyond my wildest dreams (also not). I also owned two businesses that were total failures because I just lost interest after 6 months.
The only person in the world who "gets me" is my brother. He's 15 years older than me so I barely know him, but we are so much alike it just blows me away. I really don't know him well enough to know if he's BP as well. For the past 50 years he's lived in California and I live in Canada.
I even see it in my kids.
I hope my grandkids will be ok.

Sorry about the huge font, I had no idea 4 would be so huge.

LOL, its ok Phoenix, I'm glad you're enjoying your stay at Psych Central!

You know you're bipolar when, you stay up all night manic and can't get to sleep! You want to sleep, you know you have to, but you can't

Hey Phoenix! Yeah, I remember seeing your posts recently and thinking it'd been quite awhile since I'd seen you around! Welcome back! This thread is a good one!

Here's a couple more that came to mind: (and in purple in honor of your return...)

...When you're an adult and your mother* gets exasperated at hearing about something you're up to and derides it as yet another one of your "phases" and all you can do is laugh because she has no idea how right she actually is. For once.

(* Who has myriad substantial psychological problems, but so heavily in denial she'd never seek help as there's "nothing wrong" with her thankyouverymuch. Forget the overwhelming evidence, every bridge burned and that any aspect of her behavior was absolutely positively not an allowed topic for discussion with anyone in the family. So she's about the last person on earth you'd bother to tell.)

...When you go to bed, but your brain won't shut up and you literally bounce out of bed every couple of minutes (seconds, lol) remembering something else you've got to do. This starts to annoy others who don't understand: a) just how fast your brain is going and that sleep is hopeless anyway, b) that you have to take advantage of the fact that your brain IS working now and you can't count on its functioning tomorrow and c) you've got so damn much energy you might as well do it now.

When you have a conversation that covers 5 topics and the poor other person keeps trying to stay on one topic, but is polite and follows you around with the other 5 topics, only for you to keep returning to the previous ones and going "So... that restaurant you mentioned earlier? And then again? What were you saying?". So while I've had 1 conversation with 5 topics, the other person has had 5 conversations repeated about 8 times.

when you are too depressed to make a decision, but too agitated to sit still.

when you not only spend your $5,000 tax return on internet auctions, but max out $8,000 worth of credit cards as well

When you KNOW you have been hogging the conversation and just CAN't shut your mouth!
When the other person you are talking to is looking for a way to shut you up without being rude.
AND you are talking so damn fast and at such a heightened state that later on you think to yourself...oh I just know they think I am on drugs. (nope, not those kinds of drugs!)

You just don't care anymore..............

When you need to take seroquel and end up sitting in front of the fridge naked at 2am eating everything in sight.

When you're feeling ABSOLUTELY miserable and hating yourself and your life... and you know all the things you should be doing to try to help it... and yet you find yourself refusing to even try to do any of it because for some odd reason you've decided that life is actually BETTER when you're miserable because at least you don't have to dread when it's going to come back!

Spirit, I have a question:

I have a good friend who has a heart of gold but she can't stop talking. I phoned her yesterday and she talked for 90 minutes straight. I told her I got fired from my job Friday and 30 seconds later she changed the subject and was talking about what some distant relative of hers did. She exhausts me, so I only talk to her or see her when my mood is ok. I have call display, and if she phones when my mood is depressed or irritable I just don't answer the phone.

Her daughter has been diagnosed BP. Is it possible my friend is too? She just never shuts up.

Don't get me wrong - she's a very good person and would do absolutely anything to help me and her other friends. But she just talks too much and she wears me out.

You're mind and your mouth is running around in a million different thoughts that you can't seem to get across just how you feel today.

You're stories and thoughts are so confusing that no one follows it... not even yourself.

You become overly paranoid for no reason at all

You keep your girlfriend up till 430 in the morning because you're still rambling on about nothing and everything, only to toss and turn the rest of the night because you can't sleep.


This was the hardest part for my parents to accept my bipolar. The hypomanic stage was just me. Our daughter has always been that way so how could something be wrong with her?

So yes... I agree with this one!

hey everybody... new here and so glad i found this site... bipolar too and just moved to Germany with my husband and kid... not speaking the language and yup depression just found the right time to hit... in order to give me my meds which finished doctors here need to do ALL the screening ONCE again and im so tired of it..i even came with a letter from my psych that's fully official but they still give me a hard time... at least i read your posts and felt not so alone... thanks guys...

Phoenix,
It wouldnt be good of me to even offer my opinion on that. She could just be a chatty cathy or a plain old motormouth. Read over the other posts on here and see if any of her other behaviors line up with them.
I have found myself reading and going "OMG I do that too!"
Then you can draw your own conclusions. But be careful not to diagnose...we gotta leave that to the PDocs

You buy a whole bunch of new stuff, only to get bored with it and buy a whole bunch more new stuff then freak out when the CC bill arrives and you go "OHS I spent THAT MUCH?"