I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder about three years ago, but looking back on how my life has been up until now, I can see the symptoms have been there for much longer.
I lived in a perpetual state of ups and downs for most of my life, unable to control when the mood swings would kick in or how long they were going to last. It started off relatively mild; one week I’d feel completely energized and couldn’t sleep at all, followed by the next few days back down with intense fatigue and apathy.
At first, it was difficult to be honest about what I was going through. I hid both the highs and lows out of fear that if anyone found out what was really happening then I would lose out on friendships, jobs, anything in my life that had become meaningful to me. Unfortunately that only made things worse.
Finally I decided enough was enough and talked to a doctor about my struggles. That’s when they told me that I likely suffer from bipolar disorder and gave me the proper diagnostic tools to determine this more clearly over time. With medication as well as therapy, things began to improve over time.
There are still good days and bad days but with a support system in place along with open communication about what is going on inside my head, I have been able to take control back from this disorder. It’s still something that affects me every day but facing up to it has allowed me grow so much as person in ways no one else thought possible before my diagnosis.