Are you a highly functioning person with bipolar disorder?

Hey, it's great to know that you like volunteering.

Kudos to you.

I like the fact that you're in control and go at your own pace. Nice!

Hey, I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work!

You do have your stuff together. You're in control of how things go. Beautiful.

Sweet! Nice prospective.

I've run out of time for the night. For all of you who shared an input, do know that you are amazing no matter what.

Things have become extremely difficult for me since my psychotic break in january. Everything is harder. Life is harder. I'm not the same person I was before it. (Oh, and I'll be 33 in August... not that that little tidbit of information is really relevant. lol)

I've been at the same job for ten years, come August. It's harder for me at work now because I tend to dissociate and have paranoia/anxiety, that's really overwhelming. I almost left work early the other day because it was so bad, and I was so scared. But I HAVE to keep it together. We need my income, and we get our insurance through my job. Just gotta keep on pushing.

Hey, I just wanted to say that I turn 32 tomorrow, too!!! I'm glad I share a birthday with such a great person!!!

All the Best,
Hope

It's taken a little trial and error to figure out. I used to be a full time student and part time worker. I can't handle that anymore without a break down. Now as long as my mental health stays kind of stable I know what I can and can't handle

I feel that I am functioning relatively well. I got married and started working towards a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling about two years ago and had my first episode of mania and psychotic break last April when I spent a night IP. That semester in school I wasn't able to complete anything so I found out I would have to repeat one of the classes. I would've had to repeat the other class I was taking, but the professor of that class was retiring that semester, so for whatever reason I got an A.

Since then I've been considerably more anxious and doubtful of my abilities to function and follow through on my goals. I've taken two semesters since the semester I sort of bombed on, and I took two classes each of those semesters and got As. The class I needed to repeat is completed now. I mainly live off of the loan money I get for school, but I have worked part time since before the episode I has. I normally work around 15-25 hours depending on how much business we have. I'm lucky in that my bosses are pretty flexible with my schedule, so if I need some weeks with fewer hours, I can usually make that happen. I qualify for Affordable Care Act which covers almost all of my medication and my visit to my nurse practitioner a few times a year. I don't have a pdoc or therapist that I continually see, just the social worker at community counseling which I saw in 2013 and 2014 for about six sessions each year. Nothing this year so far.
I'd consider this medium functioning I think. The thing about how I am doing now is that I feel like it's taking almost everything to keep it together while working through this routine. Soon I will have to transition into working with clients and having a full time job after I graduate, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep it together with a full time job and clients who depend on me. I'm not sure what the plan will be if things don't work out, but for now, my husband and I get by without any major problems.

I'm functional, I'm not sure how high functioning.

I have a full time job with benefits which pays for my doctor visits and part of my medication ( I could never afford the full price out of pocket) an I am seeing a therapist free thru a local non profit (covered by a different program at work).

However outside of work, I tend to be a bit of hermit. I have human friends but I haven't been social in a long time. I seem to prefer my cat.

I have no problem going to the store, driving or anything like that. I just seem to have a limit to how much interaction I can handle

This is good, because I want to teach English in Japan for a couple of years through the Jet Programme. I need to get on a more stable dose of medication, as well as find a therapist where I go who can accommodate my needs. But I was worried that I might lose control and get angry at some obnoxious kids. However, you and some other replies in this thread are giving me more faith in myself, so thanks for that.

when I'm up, I mostly do well. When I'm depressed, it rarely happens.

I have a masters, two professional accreditations, a 3A credit rating, a 2014 car and a 2011 truck (no loan, paid cash), six years left on my mortgage and almost enough money to retire. I've only been unemployed for two weeks in my work-life.
So I think that I am high functioning

But, I am also very self destructive. I push myself too hard. I expect too much from myself.
I don't think that what I have is worth what I've done to myself

Very high functioning,, job, wife, kids all great...... and I really don't care if I see tomorrow.... is that an issue....

I'm high functioning. I have a college degree and I have been teaching in a highly stressful environment for three years.

However I have also had six hospitalizations and one extended leave from work. So I guess I'm able to hide things pretty well but they always break down to nothing.

I don't know how things will go now. I'm going to try to be strong. I'm going to go to work. I don't know if I'll be able to handle it but I'm going to try. Thankfully after this week there are only two weeks left in the regular school year. Then I'll have a two week break until summer school. I hope I can do this.

No, I'm afraid I am not functioning very well at this time. It's a very hard time for me.

I feel that I am high functioning. I've been with my very supportive husband for twelve years now. I have a bachelors and masters degree. I work full time, but I am not in my field yet, if ever. The economy is not the greatest where I live. I also have self doubt about whether I can handle the stress in my career. I'm on Intermittent FMLA, and I usually go on med leave once a year but this last year has been good, cross my fingers. So I miss about two days a month. Everyday is pure hell. I don't handle stress, but I guess I do because I'm still working. I'm scared I will one day break. I'm having trouble finding a therapist, I really need coping skills so this doesn't happen. Medicines only go so far. I feel I'm high functioning because I was able to obtain my degrees and I still work, but does that really define high functioning? I don't know. I just keep pushing forward.

I was high functioning, then I got medicated and hospitalised and am no longer functioning much at all lately.

I think it's possible to be high-functioning and still view yourself as a victim of circumstances. I alternate between being extraordinarily high-functioning and pretty much nonfunctional and absolutely consider myself to be a victim of circumstances. Everyone with Bipolar is, by definition, a victim of it because it is something that causes them to suffer (if someone with Bipolar doesn't suffer from it, then I'm happy for them). I view it the same way I view being raped. I was a victim of it, but it doesn't make me weak. Acknowledging that you are the victim of something doesn't mean that you're bitter or self-pitying. It means you admit that something bad has happened to you. I'm fairly certain that you aren't implying that viewing yourself as a victim a weakness, but I wanted to make it clear that it isn't.

I'm very high-functioning, even at my worst and unmedicated.

I can always maintain my job, even if I am not performing at 100%.
I have never ran into financial trouble because I'm responsible with my money.
I have a degree, even if my grades weren't the best that they could have been.

I can somewhat sabotage my social life, but I can keep the ones related to money in control. I'm self-sustaining and don't need assistance with finances.

Will it always be that way? Who knows, but I hope so.

I like to consider myself high-functioning...I test super high on all tests, but I still have issues with my moods and emotions.

My psychiatrist used to call me "the highest functioning patient with this severity of bipolar I have ever treated". Now, not so much. I earned a master's degree just before getting bad and I worked in a stressful job with a lot of responsiblity for 11 years and then a bunch of things happened and I had to stop working. Even when I was working it was hard and there were problems; I was on disability every couple of years and was fired twice (one more because the company fired experienced staff and replaced with new grads than because of me, a reputation everyone but me seemed to know) but I still did it and the last couple of years I worked I was in a different specialty and did very well in it.

Now I more work on keeping my life unstressful and coping with daily needs than anything else. I've gone from extremely high functioning (considering my severity, so not so high compared to some people) to functioning more like where someone with my severity is expected to function.

However until this un-ending mania I had really been doing better with the combination of less stress due to no job and menopause decreasing hormones for a while. My cycling was still there and I never was really stable or level but I was not having huge episodes until this one. The last time a huge one started it was actually easily controlled with only 1 med change, a first for me. This time, not so much.