do you feel bipolar has ruined your life?

BP II didn't ruin my life.

Early childhood trauma did a number on me. There was just so much of it. The depression and c-PTSD associated with it was relentless. No help with it until I was old enough to leave home and get help. I believe it has played a big part in setting off multiple autoimmune conditions by the time I was in my 20's, etc.


WC

well that's a tricky question MY bipolar didn't ruin my life it just has taken it's toll on my enjoyment and quality of life. My mother's bipolar ruined my life. The trauma from the mental, emotional and physical abuse I suffered at her hands because of her "moods" that ruined my life. The c-PTSD and all the night terrors and all the other "gifts" I still suffer from yupper life ruining.

Sometimes I feel like it totally did and sometimes I feel that everything happens for a reason. Can I blame all my failures and mistakes on my bipolar? I don’t know. Were they truly failures or were they events meant to happen to get me to the place were I am today on my way to were I will some day be? Looking back this is not what I wanted for myself - not even close. But I am happy although it is not a life many would choose.

Bipolar mixed with PTSD have definitely had a very negative impact on my life. I regularly get severe mixed episodes and my ability to function is compromised. It seems every time I try to break free and forge a new path, to rebuild my life BP and PTSD take me down. I have achieved few of my dreams as this has been going on since I was a young child. Despite this I won't give up. I will keep trying to rebuild and have a life worth living.

I think it's limited my potential. I've had many hospitalizations and ect done, been through treatment programs and I'm on disability. My symptoms have worsened over time. I want to go back to work but I'm scared of failing.

Idk. I think it has altered my plans and made life harder. Like having a son younger and having a ton of debt. My life is ok though. Far from ruined. I have a decent job, live in a decent neighborhood, and have a wonderful son I wouldn't trade for the world. My life is just more stressful.

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It hasn't ruined my life but it did irrevocably change aspects of my life. Some things for the better.

BP for me has answered a lot of questions about my youth, it has not ruined my life. I will not let my diagnosis define me. I am very fortunate to be at a job where my boss is supportive of me and knows about my diagnosis, I have family that loves and supports me. My suicide attempt last winter almost ruined my life. I came close to losing my marriage, and still may. At the moment though we are focusing on the act of getting through the pain that it caused and I will probably come away with a better perspective on my actions and their effects on others.

It has ruined my social life. I get so lonely and yet I don't know how to interact with people.

I am exactly the same way.

It has made my life more complex. My daughter and her mother does not understand why I behave the way I do. It has also come close to ruining me financially. It has placed stress on my daughter. So it has not been pleasant for those around me.

Absolutely. I can't work. I can't watch my son. I can't finish my degree that I desperately want to finish. I can't support my husband during my bad mood episodes.
Yes, I feel like it ruined my life.

This isn't a yes or no kinda thing for me. It has really messed up my work, family, and marriage life. However my musical life has been blessed by the disorder. It's hard, at times i love the strong emotions i get to feel. Other times its my worst enemy. It's the very definition of a double edged sword.

My Bipolar disorder made me stronger.
After you comeback from a maniac episode, you know that there isn't a problem in life harder to solve.

During the first couple of years after my first episode, I had so many regrets of what I said and what I did, and I felt so ashamed infront of people that witnessed my maniac episode.

But then I realised that I have no control over my past and there is no need for making myself suffer from a short period of my life.

Day to day, it still affects me. I have to watch over myself if I get too high or too low.
This is a part of me now and I have to deal with it.

But It empowered me for getting professional and educationnal success. If I cameback from a maniac episode, there is literally nothing that I can't accomplish.

Im half & half really, in ways i think yes because i cant control my moods, my rage & my suicidal tendencies. On the other hand, its negative & disgusting actions of others against me that has ruined my life, these actions have only aggravated my condition & caused me to become the way i am at the moment. I have hope that things will eventually get better, maybe one day i'll find love for myself as a person & not see a monster in the mirror everyday. Maybe one day i'll finally experience the happiness i've looked for all my life but first i need closure from a certain incident, i need this to break free from the prison that is my mind right now

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Everyone has an interesting response to your question, raspberrytorte. Happy Birthday to you! Nice to meet you. Your signature, namely "The darkest of nights is followed by the brightest of days," is the backwards way of what my mother used to say to me. She said, "The brightest lights are followed by the darkest nights." Something similar. She was trying to cheer me up. She saw me as one of the brightest lights, which I was. But I also had terrible depressions and rages, even as a child. Her attempt to comfort me did not work, because I took it to mean that I was someone punished after a period of happiness. And now I know -- when bipolar, we do get existentially punished after hypomania -- we get a depression crash, just like my mother intuited. As for ruining my life, it ruined my career expectations. I ended up on Social Security Disability Insurance (USA) when all I wanted was a good job where people would treat me right, and I could control my hours -- AND SUPPORT MYSELF. I don't know why I still feel inferior for not having a "job-job." I created two small service businesses. They were very successful for a long time (sequentially). I was treated very well by my clients, and set my own hours. I could rest between appointments. I could not make good money, though, because of my lack of stamina based on bipolar. I had to have a husband to help support us. So after my final divorce, I had to look for a job-job and that's when I ended up on disability retirement. I honestly think part of the problem with my not handling jobs well is because as a woman growing up in the 1950s and 960s, opportunities were extremely limited for us. There was no career advice, no career counseling, no vocational education, no discussion at home of how our interests and talents would be used, or of anything except (for me) teaching or secretarial work. So I did both. These were not good careers for me. Traditionally here is what women before the last 10-20 years could do for work: full time homemaker, waitress, teacher; nurse; office work; nun; house cleaning; sex worker. Am I missing something? I don't know how many women were realtors, but some for sure. Maybe a lot. Limited jobs as church organist or dance studio pianist. Maybe medical illustrators or other book illustrators, but I do wonder if many of these were women. Even symphony orchestras were all-male!!! There were other jobs, too, but they were oddball things like indexing. I met a disabled woman at a vocational rehab conference one time, who made a good living as an independent business woman doing indexing for authors who wrote nonfiction books.

for me- i'm going to have to say no.

even before mental health diagnoses my life was pretty screwy (what with how i was braught up and everything)

the fact i got all this crap to deal with is just the icing on the cake really

i don't remember a time i was ever happy, so..

It's too early to tell. My life is not "ruined" at current but it sure was in a downward tailspin for a while. Sometimes this illness tries to kill me. If it ever succeeds, I'd say it ruined my life. Sometimes I see and feel things others can't and it can be very beautiful. I guess I will have to wait and see if it ruins my life. It could, but there are a lot of things in the world which could potentially ruin my life.

For me yes. But I also have really bad fibromyalgia every day i am in pain.
But for the mental part yes its very hard.

Devil, I have fibro too and I feel the fibro has ruined my quality of life more drastically than bipolar. They both suck, but the constant chronic pain and sickness is a 24/7 365 sort of thing. Bipolar has more breaks and sometimes it's pleasant for me since I'm one of the lucky ones who gets inflated self esteem and euphoria. I once thought I was going to become a famous singer and be discovered by talent agents because I posted myself singing (poorly) on Facebook. I felt famous for awhile and that was fun.....till the crash and resulting embarrassment occurred.

Yes, it has caused me to make one bad decision after another and led me into early retirement without enough money to live on. Now it's too late to recover.

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At different periods in my life, I do feel that Bipolar has ruined my life. In reality though, I won't allow it to ruin my life. I'm thankful for the things I do have and recognize I must cope the best I can and realize that there's always more to learn about life through experience.

I do feel I would have followed a much different path if I did not have Bipolar and that I would have made much healthier life choices. However, BP has given me the ability to help others based on some of my own experiences. I love helping people, and maybe BP gave me the ability to empathize with others more.

This is a tricky one! Caused big time damage, yes, but ruined, I don't know. I guess for me ruined is if I finally gave in and ended it all. I'm still trying for my husband and son and doing everything in my power to get well. Now, do I think much of my childhood was ruined, hell yes! I lived in a very chaotic home with a Bipolar and ADD cult religion nut mom!

At this point looking back on 35-40 years of this nonsense, I can definitely say it has altered every aspect of my life.
BP ruined my aspiration, my finances, my marriage, my confidence....I'm 50 and instead of being 20 years into a real Career/Profession, I'm just another button pusher in a dead end job (that I'm grateful to have because it pays the bills) and I'm rotting away. I lost everything in 2012....it ruined my entire life then, that's for sure.

I'll give a simple YES!!!