Bipolar Support Group

If I learn to see "dis-abled" as "other-abled" and that my mental "illness" is a mental "challenge," I think I can accept myself on an as-is basis.

My goals before bipolar disorder are not the same as now. So when will I define what "success" means in my life? If I am a high jumper, am I going to set the bar high enough to be a challenge? Or will I set it lower so I know I won't fall flat on my face? Would it be easier to let somebody set it for me?

I remember the Beatles' tune, "Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life you have waited for this moment to arrive."

I am asking myself questions like this. Do you also ask those questions? What are you going to do with your life to make it meaningful? I want to one day say, "I am bipolar and I am successful?" What are your thoughts about that?

Post edited by: scooby, at: 04/25/2009 03:41 PM

I define success the same way I did before I was diagnosed. I know what I want out of life, and it may be harder to get it for me than for some, but I have no doubt that I can make it. Because I want things that make me happy, not things that make me rich or powerful, I have easier goals than some people.

Scooby,

I like to look at people with disabilities (mental illness or physical) as being "differently-abled."

I quite like that, Neon. I'll have to introduce that concept to my family.

I define success as being stable, having a tdoc and pdoc I can trust and not allowing bipolar to stop me from achieving my dreams. I ended up withdrawing from school this semester to get my rapid cycling under control, but I haven't given up on my education. I'm doing much better now and plan to complete my Bachelor's. From there, I plan to earn a Master's in psychology and an MD in psychiatry. I don't care if I'm 101 before it happens. As the saying goes, better late than never.

Thanks, Jenny.

Scooby,

I think that some of the questions that you are asking are questions that everyone asks themselves. Particularly people nearing middle age or above. Myself being one of them.

To me, having stable moods is successful. If my moods are stable and I'm not depressed, I can do almost anything. Living a normal, productive life is successful to me.

Happiness. I don't have any specifics yet

I view success as achieving my goals, and if I have a disability (mentally or physical)success is more of a challenge, however when we do achieve our goals didn't we accomplish more than someone who is not disabled?

Interesting discussion. Bipolar disorder seems to manifest itself in different ways with different people. Some use it to drive success, others it drives them from success. If you're talking purely in a professional sense that is. I was successful, I was an Air Traffic Controller for 16.5 years, despite my BPD2. (It was undiagnosed, the FAA doesn't let whackos in the open control airplanes. Just the closet whackos) Then, one magic day when the anger fairies decided to have the festival of maximum rage, I ripped into a supervisor after an incident in the air that I felt was because of mismanagement of human resources. I was right, us BPers are always right, everyone else needs to just realize it. Regardless, higher management didn't see it that way and I'm medically retired. Is that success? I get paid to do nothing. Feels like a waste, not like success.

Today I define some small success as not yelling at my 10 year old because she forgot to clean her dinner dishes off the table for the fourth night this week.

If you have the monsters on leashes, and they stay that way most of the time, then you're successful if you have BP2. I wouldn't put all my eggs in the success basket, though. It's likely that many megalomaniac world leaders were BP. Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, others. The charisma of the manic side mixed with the anger of the depressive side can be a very nasty combination. You might want to have someone you trust in life to ask "Is what I'm doing right now good, sane, reasonable, and productive?". I don't think we always see that clearly, do we?