Living with Type II Bipolar

A Twitter acquaintance who goes by @UnseenPerfidy shares an article on what it’s like to live with Type II Bipolar: https://medium.com/@UnseenPerfidy/dealing-with-bipolar-disorder-5ccbe6374228

Now while I don’t share his use for semantics on “being” vs. “having” Bipolar, I think it’s important to talk about. I’ve written on it here in the past, shortly after an online friend took his own life.

When you’re experiencing hypomania or depression, it’s really hard to put into words what it’s like to be feeling them at the time; and @UnseenPerfidy does, in my opinion, a pretty bang-up job describing it. In particular, I can relate to the feeling of impatience when other people can’t “keep up” with me.

I chatted a bit with him on Twitter and asked if addictive behavior is something that he’s noticed with his own Bipolar, and he says, yes. In his case, it was alcohol. In mine, I have such a fear that alcohol will become addictive that I stay away from it altogether. I was the kid who never went to a party in high school, who never got trashed in college, who never went out drinking with co-workers at the end of the day. My own addictive behavior tends to the much less self-destructive, but rather self-hindering (like the many years I spent not studying or getting decent work experience, pissing away my time on Second Life. I still piss my time away on Facebook. I gotta work on that. I’m only elven.)

Now, I’m working a full-time job and it is a decent one, but there are hours and hours I still piss away online. I’m not writing the book that I say I’m writing, for example. I’m not drawing or crafting or much of anything except drooling in front of social media.

So I need to work out a way to really make time to do something else. Replacing undesirable behavior with desirable behavior.

Anyway, check out Rob’s article, you might find it insightful.