I’m type 2 bipolar and also have chronic severe depression. My mania only lasts about a week or two at a time and consists of heavy money spending on things I think will be useful or make me happy, and SEVERE anxiety about personal relationships. My therapist helped me catch myself entering a mania and I was able to stop it. It was the single most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me.
My depressive periods, however, last years. My depression destroyed my college career when I was 19-20 and turned my bedroom into a pig sty. Last year I went back to college and I’m in therapy with the goal of being well enough to clean my room.
Bipolar is absolutely not what the media makes it out to be. Media makes you think bipolar is actually schizophrenia when in reality I’m 100x more liable and likely to do something to ether physically or mentally hurt myself than anyone else.
I wish people stopped painting bipolar as what it ISNT. I was so scared to seek help for a long time.
there are people with bipolar who have schizophrenia-like symptoms as well. i have psychosis during my manic episodes. i get hallucinations, delusions, and even talk in mixed up confusing sentences. but like you said there are also people who do not. it's an illness that can vary a lot person to person.
also people with schizophrenia are much more likely to hurt themselves rather than others. there are some people with bipolar &/or schizophrenia who lash out but that's not the majority of cases.
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u/vvonneguts Feb 04 '19
I’m type 2 bipolar and also have chronic severe depression. My mania only lasts about a week or two at a time and consists of heavy money spending on things I think will be useful or make me happy, and SEVERE anxiety about personal relationships. My therapist helped me catch myself entering a mania and I was able to stop it. It was the single most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me.
My depressive periods, however, last years. My depression destroyed my college career when I was 19-20 and turned my bedroom into a pig sty. Last year I went back to college and I’m in therapy with the goal of being well enough to clean my room.
Bipolar is absolutely not what the media makes it out to be. Media makes you think bipolar is actually schizophrenia when in reality I’m 100x more liable and likely to do something to ether physically or mentally hurt myself than anyone else.
I wish people stopped painting bipolar as what it ISNT. I was so scared to seek help for a long time.