Everybody experiences it, it is a part of the human condition. We all feel the ups and downs of life. Now the difference in someone with Bipolar disorder those highs can get very high (mania/hypo-mania) and the lows can get very low (depression), hence why for a long time the disease was called manic-depression.
The hard thing with managing Bipolar is that part of it is brain chemistry and needing the right medicine to stay well, and part of it is environment based which stress can very easily affect. So just how everyone experiences being happy when something good happens, like landing a new job, and feels sad when something bad happens, like when a pet or loved one dies, a person with Bipolar needs to manage their medicine with a psychiatrists help and manage the life event with a therapist or licensed counselor so their moods don’t get too elevated or too down when they experience these happy and sad things.
And as I have explained above, this is just what makes managing this illness so hard. Our brains are broken and instead of managing our emotions on our own, when something good or bad happens, someone with Bipolar disorder needs medicine and doctor supervision to stay out of a psychiatric hospital.
Bipolar can be managed but it takes diligence. And it can be exhausting. I was diagnosed in 2002, so it has been 24 years that I have been struggling to manage this illness. I have experienced illness exhaustion for sure. But the good news is it can be managed and people diagnosed with Bipolar disorder can live a perfectly normal life with the right management of it.
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