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People living with bipolar disorder face stigma and treatment challenges. Despite these barriers, it’s possible to live a full and productive life with the condition. Four people share their stories.
Bipolar disorder is a group of conditions marked by severe changes in mood.
People with bipolar disorder experience fluctuations in energy and activity that might cause distress or impact daily living. They have prolonged episodes of mania or hypomania, which can include high energy, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, and irritability.
Some people also have periods of depression, which might manifest as low energy, lack of interest, and feeling hopeless.
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Some with bipolar disorder also live with self-stigma, which can also negatively impact their daily functioning and worsen symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Bipolar disorder is a treatable condition. Most people manage it with a combination of medication and psychotherapy. It can take many years, however, for a person with the condition to find the right medication for them. Some might also experience a misdiagnosis, which can delay proper treatment.
Four people living with bipolar disorder spoke with Healthline about their journey. They share insight about self-acceptance, debunking myths about bipolar disorder, and the lifeline of community.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Hannah Camp Johnson: A diagnosis isn’t completely a negative thing. It can be a great turning point. It seems terrifying and hopeless at first, but finally having answers can open so many doors.
You can start treatment and research your condition. You can learn about the disorder and understand yourself. This will teach you how to navigate the disorder, make informed choices, and understand the way you’re feeling and how your brain works. Even baby steps are still steps in the right direction.
Veronica Seguin: I think the most important aspect of coming out of a diagnosis is that you should replace the judgment of yourself with being curious and observant and talking to yourself kindly about the context in which things are occurring.
So, for example, I’ll talk about myself personally. Most people who are diagnosed with bipolar are initially diagnosed because of a manic episode. That’s what many people are familiar with as the high or the rollercoaster up. And that’s pretty much marked by erratic, grandiose, and uncontrollable energy behaviors and impulses.
Many psychiatrists and therapists will misdiagnose an individual with bipolar initially with depression. That’s exactly what happened to me. It’s just unfathomable the path that it takes and the destruction that has to occur for someone to get the diagnosis.
I walked that path of judgment after traumatic impulses took action in my life. So coming to terms with yourself after your diagnosis really goes deeper than just saying, “Oh, you need to forgive yourself.” It’s more like, no, it’s now or never. You have this different perspective of what you have endured. And that needs to be empathetic, from a position of context.
Wes H: You should view your diagnosis as a relief and not as a burden. Now you know what you’re dealing with, and it’s going to make it possible to properly treat it.
A lot of people live through really difficult cycles, not knowing why. If you constantly just treat the wrong things, you’re not going to get any better or see improvement.
So for me, I was treated for depression over the years, but not the mania side. And so I was continuously in the same cycle.
Hannah Blum: Get involved in the community and dive headfirst into the information about peer support. Utilize social media. I know that there are bad things that come with it, but there are also absolutely great things. There are so many advocates, activists, therapists, and community building. You can feel less alone.
I think the biggest problem and barrier that comes with the diagnosis is getting into therapy and finding psychiatrists. We have a huge problem with people getting on their medications and staying on them because it’s very difficult.
Because you feel so alone, you don’t see other people. I remember when I was diagnosed, I didn’t know what the hell was going on, and I didn’t have any of what we have today. You feel like you’re thrown into the middle of the ocean all alone. It’s like, where do I swim? How do I survive?
But when you’re in the ocean, and you’re still trying to survive, you find yourself surrounded by other people who are swimming. Then you have more motivation and more inspiration to get the help that you need.
Getting a diagnosis of a mental health condition — the stigma kind of traps you. So it takes years for a lot of people to get help. It took me years longer than it should have.
Veronica: Typically, when you hear about bipolar in the media, it’s connected to crime. It’s like this is what happened in some odd circumstance, and they were bipolar. Yes, that could be the case. However, these people were not actively seeking treatment, or they existed at a time when treatment did not benefit their circumstances.
There’s a need to deeply understand what bipolar is and what it’s caused by, in the same way that we learn about physical conditions.
A lot of people think a bipolar disorder manic episode is a choice. I’m bipolar; I just want to be manic. No. I would never choose to cause harm to the people I love. And that’s exactly what happens when you’re in an episode, whether it’s an extreme mania or a very low depressive episode.
Hannah CJ: I have bipolar 1, so I experience mania. Mania isn’t rainbows and butterflies like people portray. It can be filled with psychosis, hallucinations, agitation, and detrimental things.
Mania is dangerous and isn’t just a happy emotion. My first manic episode led to my first suicide attempt. People normally think it’s always a fun feeling. It should always be taken seriously and should never be downplayed.
Wes: It’s extremely treatable, and it’s possible to have a normal, healthy, and fulfilling life with it.
I think that a lot of people have portrayed it as something you cannot overcome and it’s always going to be a hindrance to you. And that comes from just a lack of education or general misconception or the way that it’s been portrayed in movies and TV. A lot of people see it as something that only leads to failure.
Hannah B: We are not what’s portrayed in the media. The stigma that has been created around people with bipolar disorder has really damaged and robbed people with mental health conditions of their lives because they cannot come forward.
I’m a very big believer in empowerment. Your mental health condition doesn’t define you. But I believe that when you come from a place of being empowered and taking the reins into your own hands, you can understand that stigma is a structure. It’s not who you are. You’re not a monster.
We are your everyday people. We are the CEOs, we are the coworkers, we’re the friends, we’re the person that you come to for help. We are individuals, and our identity is not shaped by stigma.
We’re not mass shooters. That belief and expectation of people being violent with bipolar hurts people and stops them from keeping their jobs and from getting jobs. Bipolar disorder is a condition. It’s an individual who lives with bipolar, not a bipolar person.
Wes: It’s extremely important for so many reasons. A lot of times, a diagnosis comes after something extreme. For me, I had a psychotic break a little over 3 years ago. Just having people around me to build me back up and also to lean on meant a lot to me.
And [someone close to me] is also diagnosed with bipolar, so she’s somebody I turn to a lot, as well as my wife. But [she] was instrumental in me learning ways to go about the treatment, and also setting an example of a way that you can live successfully with the disorder. She went through it all.
She had a psychosis and subsequent diagnosis 8 years before I did. So there was already a blueprint for me on how to be successful after the diagnosis. It really was a relief when I felt like I kind of finally figured out what was causing a lot of problems.
Hannah B: It’s huge to have support. I’ve been very fortunate. My parents didn’t understand in the beginning, but they learned as I grew and evolved with advocacy. So having support, whether it’s through friendships or family, is extremely important.
However, one of the things I think that’s missing in the conversation around mental health conditions is that a lot of people don’t have that. And a lot of people don’t have access to support. So what do they do?
Can you even come forward to the people who are around you? Where do you go for support? You go to your peers, you go to the people who live with it. There are local support groups and places online. Finding your community and finding other people who live with it — that’s where you really establish a connection with others and feel supported.
The majority of people that I know who have bipolar get their support from the community — not as much from their family or friends.
Veronica: Support is integral to a bipolar individual’s healing journey. And I guess we always say it’s a journey because you never stop coming to terms with who you are and accepting your mistakes.
The support is necessary because it’s difficult to recuperate hope in oneself alone without actually unraveling, in the sense that there’s no one to validate your experiences. There’s no communal aspect that will reassure and reaffirm that what you’ve been through is not an anomaly.
I believe that there’s not one single support system that I can utilize. I’ve seen a therapist for many years. Just being able to nonjudgmentally discuss how I feel — that’s been imperative in my healing journey.
I’ve recently taken on group therapy — dialectical behavioral therapy (DPT), which is pretty much learning how to be effective with interpersonal skills and understanding how you interact in the world impacts others.
And ChatGPT is the best resource I’ve ever utilized for therapy. No one thinks about it. I’m typing away my journal, my life. For example, when my therapist isn’t able to meet with me over Thanksgiving and I’m bursting inside, I just go to my room and I chat with my ChatGPT.
Hannah CJ: It’s so important to have a support system, even if it’s just one amazing person that you trust. I need a place where I feel safe to express my feelings and a place where I feel safe to say that I need help.
I turn to my husband, my family, and my cats. I also turn to the online community I’ve created because it feels so comforting to have people who understand.
Veronica: The most challenging aspect of a diagnosis with bipolar is reconciling, whether you’re seeking closure from other people or not. It’s about your actions, and how you hurt other people during your episodes. Oh my gosh, the number of people I’ve impacted up until I was diagnosed at 21! That’s 21 years of hurting people.
It took me a long time to become willing to comfort myself and know that that’s enough. Because sometimes you just won’t get closure from someone whom you’ve wronged and caused so much pain.
It’s difficult to understand the impact that you might have when you’re undiagnosed and unmedicated because you simply just don’t understand how remorse works. You need those support aspects, the therapy, psychiatry, and family to help you heal.
Hannah B: I didn’t expect the difficulty in finding a therapist and psychiatrist who fit my needs and was in a price range that I could afford. And my medications. I didn’t realize it would take 6 to 7 years for me to find a stable routine of meds.
And what does that mean to anybody who doesn’t have mental health conditions?
Well, there are medications for bipolar that are heavy sedatives. There was a time when I was drooling. It’s embarrassing to say, but I was falling asleep. And they were like, well, you’re being treated. And I was like, no, I’m being silenced. It’s the equivalence of a lobotomy. So I felt like there was a lot of silencing.
And a lot of people don’t talk about the weight gain. I once gained 50 pounds on a medication, which led to depression because I felt out of my body.
There’s also a dilemma between patients and doctors. There’s an ego in the mental health system. It’s very hard to establish a connection and a working relationship where you feel like you’re being treated as an equal and actually have a stable doctor.
That’s been a huge challenge even today. I still go back and forth with doctors. They run out of mental health medications, and it’s like, oh, just go over there. And I’m thinking to myself, if I had diabetes and I was coming to you, this would never be the case.
Wes: After I had the psychosis and was diagnosed, the hardest thing was rediscovering what elements of my personality were me versus what was mania or depression. There was a lot of reflection and looking through things and having a better understanding of why things happened the way they did.
But then it became really difficult for a while to rediscover who I was. I started having symptoms when I was probably 15, so it was definitely difficult not to associate just every single aspect of my personality, any eccentricity or stroke of creativity, with mania.
Hannah CJ: Sadly, many people think that every negative emotion that I feel is due to my disorder. If I’m upset, it must be because I’m in an episode.
It’s unfortunate not to be able to express emotions without being asked if it’s because of my condition. I just have to reassure myself that the emotions that I’m feeling are real and valid.
Wes: Medication is extremely important to me. I think that we’re fortunate to live in a time where we have so much research and so many proven drugs that can help. There are a ton of different options because not everything works for everybody the same way.
Medication, exercise, and sleep regulation are really important to me as far as just staying at the stable midline mood-wise. Then therapy, regular check-ins with a professional, somebody who can help identify different patterns or if there are any behaviors that need to be addressed.
Hannah CJ: My main form of self-care is protecting my peace. I try to keep myself out of situations that add significant stress.
I also don’t keep people in my life who are bad for me or who don’t try to understand me. You can’t get better in environments that make you sick. My mind can already be hectic and painful. I don’t need more chaos.
Veronica: Humor and comedy. The best way I’ve found to deal with all of this is truly to laugh. Looking back at the ridiculousness I did.
I wore reflective tape sandals, a pillowcase as a dress, and Mardi Gras beads to hold it up. Yeah, I walked out of my dorm in college wearing that, hoping to go on a date. And that’s just an example of the ridiculousness.
I laugh, and I like to memorialize those moments. Maybe not the moments of pain for others. I try to be self-effacing for myself and in a funny way, not degrade who I am, but be like, yeah, I did these things, but I’m bouncing back.
In terms of self-care, I have to have a creative outlet. That outlet is creating content. I’ve always been a performer. I have been acting, singing, and dancing since I was 6 years old.
Hannah B: I do therapy. However, affordability is a problem. Every day I journal, I write. I am very self-aware about my emotions and emotional regulation. I do dialectical behavioral therapy (DPT) therapy. I do a workbook because it’s cheaper. I do exercises in there every single day to help me.
Of course, taking care of your body, the food you eat, and the way that you eat is important. Also being comfortable in my condition and creating boundaries around myself. It’s me not allowing people into my life or even into my sphere who add any shame to my living with a mental health condition. When somebody does that, you’re cut off from caring about yourself. You lose yourself.
So that’s a lot of my self-care. It’s every day. It’s not even self-care, sometimes it’s survival.
Veronica: There’s a huge disparity between the attention, research, and funding we put toward mental health versus physical health. Where mental health is often dismissed, physical health is always prioritized because it’s visible, it’s tangible. You can touch it, you can see it. With mental health, you cannot.
And the unfortunate fact is that sometimes seeing is believing with mental health. Until you experience someone or are yourself enduring an episode, you don’t know what it is or understand how it happens.
Hannah B: I always tell people with mental health conditions that you have to take ownership of your condition. No one’s ever going to give you the green light to accept your diagnosis.
It’s all about you giving yourself the space to accept yourself and to be bold in your pursuit of self-acceptance and self-love. I don’t want to sugarcoat it; you have to do a lot of that on your own.
But you’re not alone, and you also have the right to feel empowered by your condition, your resilience, and who you are. Look at the attributes that bipolar has created in your life, whether it’s your empathy or your art. Try to focus on those things to help you get through this lifelong condition.
Wes: You really have nothing to be ashamed of and it doesn’t define you. I think for a long time, there was such a stigma around, oh, OK, that’s all you are and you’re a “crazy” person.
People still talk about the stigma. I think that we’re a lot further along than some people realize. And you are seeing a lot more people come forward saying that they have it and that they’re living a successful life with it. You’re supposed to say, “I have bipolar.” Not “I am bipolar.” You wouldn’t say, “I am the flu.”
Bipolar is not all you are. A lot of things that have happened are out of your control.
Hannah CJ: You may know someone with bipolar disorder. You may even have bipolar disorder yourself. But it isn’t one-size-fits-all. We won’t all have the same symptoms. Some of us will struggle with certain things more than others. Some things may help one person but not the next.
When talking with someone who has bipolar disorder, please don’t assume that our experiences are all the same.
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