So why would anyone want to be bipolar?

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because it sounds more serious and is more understood by the community tell some one especially so if your a male that you have anxiety /panic disorder your accused of being weak willed , never mind the rates of suicide is just as high as depression ,perhaps even higher.

My second cousin has bipolar and one of my aunts and my younger sister have borderline personality disorder. I have HFA/Aspergers. I could say my sister is not as affected as me. At least her house is always pretty tidy and clean. She doesn't have executive functioning issues. But then I haven't overdosed, lost relationships, been talked off a multi storey building balcony by police, threatened to kill myself with a knife and had the police called on me by my partner. I don't compare our pain/suffering because I don't know what her life is really like and what's going through her head. I just know what I've read about BPD. Just like she doesn't know how hard my life is ..... I would never say I wish I had bipolar or autism rather than something else or rather than being NT. Everyone has problems.

And I know a lady who has a little boy who has autism and mood disorder NOS because he's only 7 and he's threatened to kill himself holding a knife. His father has bipolar. There's nothing good about that. No one wants to have to hospitalise their child!

Well - like most of the human condition, each person is an individual and experience illness in general in their own way. I hated bipolar symptoms: it was excruciating and I felt like It would eventually kill me so I tried and tried to get help. Shrinks, medical doctors - NO ONE BELIEVED that I was suffering. I was just some silly woman making it all up. Even after 6 years of success with Lithium, one shrink told me I wasn't bipolar and refused to write a scrip for Lithium!

On the other hand a friend who is WAY off the charts refused diagnosis until he'd destroyed his family, hit bottom and was put on medication. It either isn't working or he's not taking it. He's manic most of the time.

There are plenty of people who don't take medication for their diabetes, heart disease and other "physical" conditions.

People are human: you just can't get around it.

Because they're ignorant. When I was a kid I wanted to be in a wheelchair or have crutches because I thought they were cool. But I didn't know then that those kids actually needed them and their legs do not work so they need those things to help them get around like the rest of us and to them they are not cool things to have. They are not their toys and something they are playing with all the time. But I didn't know any better because I was a kid and kids don't know these things. So what is it about Bipolar people want?


Reminds me in Suite Life of Zach and Cody when one of the twins fakes having dyslexia just so he could get more time on his tests and getting his work done. That showed a sign of his ignorance about having a learning disability. For those with it, it's not cool getting more time to do your school work and more time on your tests. It's not like they are being lazy to get it done later than others. I would be offended if anyone told me in high school how they wish they could be me and have their work be easier so they wouldn't have to do all of it and so they could have a teacher with them all the time so she could do the work for them so they wouldn't have to listen in class and take notes and pay attention. Sure it may have been a positive thing they would have said but it would have showed me their lack of understanding and not realizing how hard it all is for me and what they take for granted in school. I am sure they worked hard too because everyone says school is hard for everyone and college is even tougher.

No I cannot imagine being Bipolar. Must be great being a b***h and verbally abusing people and getting angry all of a sudden out of the blue because something they did annoyed you that was something small and also getting so over focused on what you are doing, you block the whole world out and forget about everyone including your own partner and kids. Also I cannot imagine how it must be like having it and having to fight all these symptoms to not do them and taking medication for it and what happens if you can't afford your pills or have an insurance problem and they won't cover your prescription? All this must be great.

It's no different when people say how they with they had Asperger's so they could be very intelligent and be good with computers and patterns and stuff. Uh it's very possible to have those things and not be autistic. Those are just stereotypes and just part of them as being people than because of their autism. My brother is very good at math and very smart and is going to law school, he is not autistic, he is gifted. My youngest brother can build things out of wood and he used to make things with tape and he is not autistic. I once saw a thread on IMDB board about Rain Man asking if anyone wished they were autistic and people in it were saying yes just so they could have his memory and do math calculations in their head and count cards. To me that was very ignorant because only very few autistic people are savants. Also did they forget how disabled Rain Man was and how he couldn't be on his own and make decisions and he couldn't even have conversations? Also he didn't understand lot of things as if he were intellectually impaired. No I do not want his autism.

Yeah It sounds like an ignorant statement. I can understand their sentiment though as I've had depression for most of my life and it makes you feel like any kind of high-experience would be better than being low all the time.

I do have psychosis and I don't know if it's something that will go away or if it's schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Just venting now but it sucks. I did start to not sleep for days and had a slight manic episode but then I went to the doctor and started medication.

I think most people who wish they were bipolar have unipolar depression. And they feel (rightly or wrongly) that being manic some of the time would be better than being depressed all the time.

I'm mildly bipolar, and have managed it all my life without meds. My hypomanic phases are just happy and fun, and as long as I'm careful to not overestimate my abilities during those phases, they're not harmful. This is probably the type of bipolar that people wish they could be, and yeah, it's definitely better than being depressed all the time.

I can't imagine having normal, 'flat' moods, without emotional intensity - in the same way that I can't imagine being NT, and wanting to go to parties, and have a whole different personality. Having intense feelings is part of who I am, and I've never wanted to take meds that will make me feel dull (I've tried them a few times, and hated the feeling).

I think it's different for everyone though. There are times when I feel horribly depressed, and wish I could take something to make me feel better, just for a day or so (without getting psychotic). But 95% of the time I'm actually pretty happy with my brain chemistry, so I just suffer through the occasional awful days, and it gets better again.

It could be that I'm not bipolar at all, and that I was misdiagnosed (which apparently happens sometimes with autism). At any rate, I've come to realize my experience is not typical for someone with bipolar disorder, so I would agree with others in this thread - that for most people, bipolar disorder is really not a 'fun' thing to live with.

Like someone above me said, it's because they are ignorant. My aunt has bipolar and she is miserable. It's a terrible thing to deal with.

yeah the lows of Bipolar can be worse than normal depression since you go from the high of mania to the hell of depression.

I think it's hypomania that people are attracted to. Obviously hypomania can be destructive as well, but many people who experience that seem to be a lot more energetic and productive in the eyes of people with unipolar depression.

I think these people who claim to want bipolar disorder have this idea in their heads that manic or hypomanic episodes are like a holiday from depression, which is not what it is. Such extreme mood changes are very dangerous and in fact mania (even hypomania) is probably the most dangerous state to be in because you have the energy and disinhibition to follow through on risky behaviours or even psychosis. It sounds scary, to be honest.

I have a history of depression and I have never had any manic episodes. I know that I have sometimes wondered how one triggers hypomania (which is stupid and dangerous btw). What can I say? Depression is so debilitating and horrible that it can make you feel desperate and trapped. It's hard not to glorify hypomania (even if that is an objectively dumb thing to do).

For this whole post, pardon my language.

I have no idea in hell. I'm bipolar and ASD, and the combination made social interaction virtually impossible. I was pulled out of school in the eighth grade and put into a crappy alternative system for two years, and had to cry during a meeting to get back. I was attacked and emotionally abused by teachers and a pariah among kids. I couldn't do any extracurriculars, and now that I'm back, my history makes me a "ret*d" still.

Bipolar is associated with an illogical, screaming, hysterical woman. It's very hard to get people to respect me about it, and all I am is the mindless "victim". People even assume that I don't remember it! (I do.) It's like all my power is gone.

These tumblrinas think that I was manic and spent my evenings sobbing melodically out of ruby red lips while mascara ran down my moon-like eyes and my painting of a beautiful white rose lay unfinished, and my handsome lover cradled me in his f*****g arms.

Well? That's not what happened. Instead, I stimmed loudly and weirdly at the drop of a hat, argued with everyone, couldn't stand any sensory input, yelled at people for the slightest "provocation", and was borderline delusional. I was not f*****g "captivating", "mysterious", or "beautiful". I was a "ret*d" and the laughing stock of the class.

I would do almost anything to not be bipolar, and I will never, ever want it.