Does this make anyone else angry?

It could be just because I'm manic but I get explosively angry when people try to tell me they relate to what I'm going through with my BP and there's no way in hell they could. (Clearly I'm angry while I'm writing this too).

I absolutely hate it when people tell me 'oh yeah I have anxiety too' or 'everyone gets a little depressed sometimes' .....it just makes me want to rip people's heads off. My mania always devolves from that awesome, invincible feeling to complete and utter 'I feel like I'm going to die at any moment' panic 24 hours a day.

Am I being irrational (and I get very irrational when I'm manic) or does this make anyone else angry?

Logically I know a lot of times people's intent is good and they think they're trying to make me feel better and sympathize but it just seems to make things worse.

Yeah, you're not being unreasonable---it does make things worse. It minimizes and invalidates what we feel during mood episodes, and that is NOT helpful. No one who does not have bipolar can know what it's like. I hope you feel better soon...you have my sympathies.

What good does it do to get angry? It only makes you feel worse. I think most of the people who says things like, "everyone gets a little depressed sometimes" are just trying to be nice. At least they are trying to communicate with you instead of ignoring you completely, which is what most people do. So I say let it go.

I torture my self over stupid people also ... it is self destructive ... you know that ... let yourself be angry ... then let it go .... they are hurtful ... so don't let them hurt you .... that is letting them control you ... your stronger than that ... let no one take your peace from you .... Tigger ..

Oh yeah I've gotten angry. Especially over the depression piece. Before being medicated correctly my depressions were he'll on earth. Just horrible, I couldn't even move. One of my sisters the other day said she was depressed over something small trying to relate to me. And bc I'm in a good place I didn't get angry just said that's more disappointed I think.

But in the past I've gotten angry. I don't really anymore....

Everything bothers me when manic. Everyone does everything wrong, they think wrong, they are too slow, etc. I can do everything better when manic so just move out of the way and let me run the Country already!

The stable me would not be offended by something like this because everyone has their struggles and I would never presume to know if they can relate or not. If they say they can, I will believe they think they can and even might.

But like I said, manic me would start a worldwide protest about something like this. No doubt.

People who aren't that close to me have NO idea how intense my moods and anxieties are, but I like to keep it that way. They don't need to know and it's none of their business. Maybe one day I can be more open about everything, but for right now I can't (I'm a music teacher and I have to remain professional and calm most of the time, even when I'm not at work). It kind of sucks to have to be so private and secretive. But on the other hand, it helps to maintain certain friendships by not delving too deeply into the craziness. Does that make any sense?

One of the big things I'm having to deal with right now is deciding who to tel about my diagnosis and who not to tell. I have had so many people say 'well I've no seen you act that way, there's no way you're BP' and things like that. Explaini to them that I've been trying to hide it all my life isn't very easy, so I totally understand where you're coming from.

Yes!! This is totally me!!!!

this makes me want to.. well, you don't wanna know.

i hate it how someone can just take your experiences in life, and then say something like.. " oh yes, i have that too!. i can relate to that!" but then when you ask them questions.. how does this feel, or what's the worst part of your condition- they don't know

what's worse is when they take it 1 step further, for example.. if someone said, just for example, i was homeless by the age of 8- and then the other person says.. " oh really?. so was i!. it's terrible!" and you know that person, and you know full well they arn't

i know a few people like that. take other people's experiences and then relate to them.. even though they've not had them

Yeah. I guess it depends on which context they're saying these things, as well as their tone of voice.

Maybe they're ignorant but trying to be nice. OR maybe they're being jerks and trying to downplay your symptoms. So, I think it definitely depends on the context in which they're saying these things.

If they're purposely trying to downplay your symptoms, then yeah, I'd get a little irritated too.

There are people that have worse anxiety and people with worse depression (possibly), so I assume they tell the truth and it's nice to talk about it.

But people sometimes don't realise that it's the combination of the two and the perceptual changes that it causes that make it something so often insurmountable.

They (often) see it as separate problems. They therefore (probably) don't know how hard it is to deal with, escape from. The dynamics that are in some ways worse than anxiety, mania and depression, the toxic combination.

Some might also have no experience with atypical depression, in that you can suspend depression for some time, afterwards plunging back into utter despair and mental pain, often worse than before, it all having been built up, like opening a floodgate.

The same with mania. I sometimes begin hyperventilating just from keeping mania suspended for some time, the energy building to great extremes, being very fearful, while it's barely noticeable.

People understand anxiety (and sometimes depression), how it limits what you can (easily) do, but they don't understand how delusions can create invisible forces you can't possibly ignore, limiting you a lot more. Almost infinitely more.

They don't see the underground war.

I'm sorry you're angry about this. People do the best they can to understand bipolar, and sometimes it just doesn't cut it.

Is it possible that explosive anger is partly due to anger about having bipolar? I used to feel the same way you do and once I accepted my diagnosis, I was better able to hear people's words about identifying with me.

Do you ever get irritated when someone tries to say something positive or nice? I have a friend that is bipolar and every time I try to say something positive she just twist and turns it into something negative and gets all worked up and angry.