Is there seriously no hope for us? Listen to what my friend just said...

I didn't read the other comments yet but in response to the OP:

My psychiatrist just told me tonight that if he had to choose a mental illness, he would choose Bipolar disorder.

He said that it is the easiest to stabilize and manage, and the one that is easiest to help maintain people to feel normal once the right meds are used...

I'm sorry, but your friend sounds extremely ignorant. You mentioned she is a social worker so I am sure she deals with many belligerent bipolar people. What your friend has not figured out is that no two people with the condition are the same. Some become very bitter about the diagnosis and choose to let the illness consume them and are usually the ones to cause problems. However, you have taken every step on the road of recovery and it is just sad how your friend cannot differentiate you from the cases she works on. It's just like making generalizations about people based on hair color. They are both genetically based.

No one has ever said such a thing to me when I revealed my bipolar 1. Actually, I was the one who kept telling myself I would never get better or be the same person again. I kept saying to myself that I will never finish school, no one would hire me, and no one was going to marry me. One day I decided that I am the only one who has the power to make myself happy and just decided to make the best of the situation.

Depending on how close the friendship is, I would tell your friend hoe their comment has hurt you and point out that generalizing people with bipolar is essentially no different from racism.

i saw a "therapist" not long ago only three times. The first thing she said to me was, "being bipolar must be the most awful way in the world to live." Bye-bye, therapist! She had just gotten a new job with an insurance company and I think that's a good place for her to be now. Her saying that to me told me that she was a rotten therapist and that she had no idea I knew that what she said was, yes, sometimes true about a million times more deeply than she could have ever imagined. I even laughed after I was done with her! Another therapist I saw for many years said she was so sorry to me so many times that I even wrote a poem about her....
THE SORRY THERAPIST
I am sorry, so sorry
I apologize
I’m sorry for all of
Your misfortunes
I’m so sorry, so very sorry
I’m sorry I’m a therapist
‘Cause I’m a sorry one
I’m sorry I exist
As I cannot help you
At all
All I can do is say
I’m sorry
Over and over
And over and over
I’m so sorry.
Oh, so sorry.
I’m sorrreeeee.

Good God,
How did she ever get a license?

I was so tempted to email this to her after I left that clinic, but it's better that I didn't, I think. She didn't know much about BD or anything else at all and would have chalked it up to that only.

She actually made a good secretary for me, helped with some paperwork, getting my doc to write a proper letter! That was maybe her life's calling instead of counseling very ill people.

A great poem!

Yes, you are not alone. My family, but mainly my dad say that they have no faith in me and cannot rely on me to be a normal member of the family. My dad says I'm so irresponsible that he can't even be civil to me anymore.
Your friend should not have said that to you. You are already your own harshest critic, so you don't need another negative person bringing you down. Ignore what she said. I dunno what her aganda was, but she didn't have your best interests at heart when she said that. No way!

Yeah, you should definitely not be staying with you. How would she handle being with a BP person for 5 whole days anyway? She does not deserve your hospitality. You are too good a friend. Dump her. She needs to be with other people like her. You need to be with positive uplifting people.