I would like to open with one caveat to my comments written below: As a bipolar person on a journey to find enduring happiness, there is perhaps a right time and a wrong time to be presented with such ideas. For those of you feeling in a desparate struggle right now, I say, "stay the course, keep the faith, and trust that over time you can find a stable place, acquire peace, and then move toward happiness. While my comments suggest ultimate happiness lies with you, please don't be overwhelmed by the pressure of having to do this on your own - find the right stabilizing medicine, take this stabilizer ritually as directed, use your support systems, and trust your instincts."
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I am bipolar, but I am not a sick person in need of an ever-changing psychotropic cocktail, and the responsibility for my health (like anyone), must lie with me. Do I benefit from meds? Without question, and I suspect I will always take Valproic Acid, however, I refuse to consider myself sick, ill, or possessing a disease. The fact is: I am not sick, ill, or disease-ridden, yet I am bipolar - no question about any of this.
I strongly believe the key to finding happy bipolar health is to get physiologically stable and then address emotional issues and triggers that we each deal with that make us each feel good or bad. Nobody knows YOU better than YOU, and taking responsibility for oneself is the only way one will find healthy indepedence and personal strength.
For many, this is not news, but I think it is important that this idea be continually emphasized in a world where so many medical professionals and researchers frame this condition/disorder simply in biomedical and research-based terms that unintentionally confuse, and sometimes, scare those who possess the condition. Of course, the stigma associated with the "manic-depressive illness" label can be devastating as well, and this only further exacerbates the "learned helpless" that a well-intentioned helping profession, often unknowingly, promotes.
Does my illness or disease have a "course that it will run?" Absolutely not - again, I don't have an illness or disease, and I have the ability to be in control of who I am and how I feel. I believe that framing what bipolar folk deal with in "disease/illness model" terms is simply good people who conduct medical research, or practice psychiatry, trying to get a handle on something they don't truly understand (at least perhaps a majority of them). Yet, I believe this "disease/illness" model is an obstacle to many bipolar people who might, otherwise, find healthy and happy lives. Yes, a strong opinion, but one of which I am, personally, certain.
I ask you: Are you, yourself, willing to surrender your emotional health to something you believe is out of your control? Are you willing to throw up your hands and leave your happiness up to someone else (e.g., a doctor feeding you a never-ending, revolving cocktail combination of various pills)? Again, the meds are important, but at some point the bipolar person has to begin the process of hard work on his/herself. Ultimately, emotional strength is within your grasp; of course, it HAS TO BE because having this understanding is what feeling good is all about. Feeling good means, among other things, possessing self-confidence, and being able to step outside oneself and focus energies and love toward the lives of others.
