[modgoo]

I have borderline, bipolar II, PTSD, SAD, an eating disorder, and OCD tendencies. I left home at 16 and managed to buy a house, hold jobs (though most of them didn't last long), buy a new car, have good credit, put myself thru technical school.... I finally got help a year and a half ago, it's helped, especially the meds. I found that Tegretol and Celexa work great for me. Most of the time I am fine if I live alone. My fiancee left me and I cut off all my hair but, I am much happier, as I don't live well with others. My T says I am unusual because I am so high functioning. Is it unusual to keep on keeping on and to live mostly normal? I just feel like it's because I'm soooo stubborn. I feel like an anomaly sometimes, on the border between "normal" and crazy. Like I have a switch inside. So, anyways other than feeling unusual and wondering if I am unusual, I'm not sure I have much point to this.

[MrGrendel]

im still trying to figure out where i am on the functioning scale. im in college right now. im getting by,i can hold down jobs fine, i jsut sorta throw myself in and ignore any hitns of a complain in my head in order to get through it.kinda like pushing through a thorn bush. for example if i need to study for an exam i get extremely anxious, i lose most of my appetite and lock myself in my room with a huge mug of coffe for the weeknd and do nothing but study. thats the only way i can get through a demanding task, by ignoring everything else. on the other hand, in the social sphere i feel completely helpless and insecure. in fact i tend to ignore my social life in favor of my studies since i can sort of do a burn phase to get through the "difficult parts" and then collapse for a few days xD. consequently im pretty dam isolated so i wouldn't call this a healthy way of of dealing with life but its all i know. weirdly enough, i seem to be functioning just fine to people in my therapy group. no clue if this in any way addresses your question btw but hopefully u wont feel alone

[shipping]

The way I understand it, it is fairly unusual to be high functioning. I find I function simply because of certain aspects of my illness. You see, I never got unconditional love from my mother, but I often did get this from teachers. So...I stayed in school...for a long time. I fell in love with most of my teachers and the success I experienced was primarily due to my love for my teachers. So maybe you are stubborn, modgoo. And this has made you high functioning; however, it has also kept you from being diagnosed maybe. Perhaps if we weren't high functioning we would have been diagnosed and medicated sooner. Compounding this, for me, my grad program had no grad student health insurance, so I went until I was 36 without proper diagnoses, medicine...not only for psych things but for diabetes and other serious illnesses. Fast forward fourteen years. Instead of enjoying benefits of a Ph.D. I spend all my time going to doctors and trying to heal all the things that were pushed aside for so long. Maybe my response makes sense?

For someone who is living with so many Dx, the fact that you are high fuctioning and able to live on your own is great! YOu should be proud of yourself. and you should also be proud of yourself for getting help. I know how scary hard that can be.
Good luck