Paul
To the more cynical among us

For me, life isn't about compassionate understanding and sensitivity.  So, by way of remark to the more cynical among us looking for a little bit of hope that their psychological instability can tangibly improve, here is my comment.

I lost eight years of my life to my illness. It never got severe enough to warrant hospitalization but it was bad enough to decimate all prospect of progression in life for me. Bipolar disorder can be so fantastically all consuming in a subtle kind of way that it can trip you at every turn without your awareness.

I ended up seeing the doctor. He looked at me nonplussed, told me I wasn't insane, gave me some medication and told me come back in two weeks. One week later life made sense, and it’s been good for several years since.

My advice is this: Take your medication and don't be too hard on yourself for wasting so many years and don’t wallow in self pity. You have to fight to gain anything, and becoming obsessed with introspective navel-gazing won’t get you very far. I dread to think what would happen if I stopped taking my pills: my established business would evaporate and a good number of strange things would no doubt start happening. But I just get on with it and take on the next day.

It’s easy to become obsessed with your mental well-being, concentrating on your own condition rather than the world around you. If you haven't found the treatment yet that levels you out, then give yourself time. If you have found something that works, then get off the starting blocks and start running because you have to make up time.  There you have it, my “life's not nice but you have to get on with it” comment.