So why would anyone want to be bipolar?

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I just don't get it. I see people saying "I wish I was bipolar" or "mania/hypomania would give me a break from depression" or "you're so lucky to be bipolar." I don't understand it.

The highs aren't always "I feel great" moments. Sometimes I get irritated by every single small sound, people aren't fast enough and the world is going to slowly for your liking. Your thoughts are screaming at you, and you have to do this this and this all at once. You don't sleep at night because your head won't let you. You may even feel tired...but you just can't sleep. Anger becomes rage. You don't care about the consequences. I've completely ruined my life in a hypomanic episode. I've pissed off pretty much every single person I know. I even became paranoid this summer and began to hear other peoples thoughts and voices, and being convinced that they were plotting to kill me as a result. I very nearly ended up in hospital after saying that I felt the only way to stop this from happening was to kill them first.

And then higher your mood gets, the lower it will crash when the depressive episode comes along. And it always does. And they aren't worth any amount of creativity and feeling good may got.

Bipolar has totally ruined my life. I can't attend any sort of schooling/college/university. I'm not exactly stable enough to be around people for that length of time five days a week. I cannot work. I would probably be fired at some point. Everyone I know is angry at me for sending them messages I don't remember sending. I have damaged my stomach from overdosing several times a week for months.

Why in f***s name would anyone want this?!

Maybe they're confusing Bipolar with Cyclothymia.

I don't know why anyone would want to be bipolar, either. I knew a guy who was truly bipolar and to watch him go through his changes was heartbreaking. His "ups" were really up, like he was a daring sportsman who could take on the troubles of the world. His "lows" were depressingly low to the point of suicide. He's stabilized now on meds, but man, when he was going through his changes he was hard to watch or be around.

I see a lot of this wanting disorders thing on Tumblr. In theory, they want to be different, be part of a specific group or want it as a form of grabbing attention, it could be a disorder within of itself like Histrionic Personality Disorder .

Motives could differ as some who want disorders do so to claim some form of state benefit. Some people like this could even force themselves disabled like giving themselves paraplegia. It can be a bizarre world there though...

I've seen it with autism, Tourette's, disability in general, mental illness and within individuals wanting to be LGBT.

I had a friend in high school tell me that she wish she was manic depressive and that it must be fun. I told her that she wasn't missing anything. That was back in the early 90s before the condition was renamed Bi-Polar Disorder.

yeah the lows of Bipolar can be worse than normal depression since you go from the high of mania to the hell of depression. It's the brutal transistion from feeling great to feeling like s**t that makes it so bad. Going from one extreme to another in a short time is definitely not pleasant

People wish they could have mental illnesses because they romanticize it too much in their own minds and don't realize the horrible drawbacks that come with having such disorders. It kind of reminds me of an article I read that said that in Victorian literature, authors would often give their characters tuberculosis, because it was considered poetic and glamorous in a tragic way (or something along those lines; can't recall the source nor the exact wording).

If I am to be totally honest, I have to admit that in the past I have sometimes wished that I could have schizophrenia or even Dissociative Identity Disorder. It has nothing to do with wanting pity/sympathy (I get more than enough of that as it is), but rather stems from a desire to completely lose touch with reality and to delude myself into believing my imaginary friends are real, and to have them feel like separate, autonomous entities. It's about wanting to reclaim my imagination, which as of the past several years it feels like I have lost.

I think they wish they were more creative and if they do have depression want to experience the manic highs. I mean why do people take drugs?

I'm not going to deny that mania can sometimes feel great but it doesn't last long for me and more I ride the high the harder I crash.
Sometimes I'll do something to trigger mania but then it also triggers even more rapid cycling and mixed episodes.

I actually wished I had bipolar during a manic episode and I didn't even realise I could have it.

I think people get jealous (yes, jealous) of a few symptoms that look like an advantage, but they all come with drawbacks. Mania was the only thing that made me not only more social but gave me a desire to me more social. And when you usually have a problem getting motivated to do things, without being depressed, it can feel like such a blessing.

I'm in the pre-diagnosis, pre-medicated/treatment stage and I can never make my mind up about wanting to go for treatment or just continue to deal with my symptoms.

It's because they don't know what it is. If they knew what it is, they wouldn't want it.

Please don't come on here and explain to me about the theories about how bipolar is the result of eating fast food. I have heard it all before, and I really am not interested. I did not ask for opinions on "why I am bipolar" or "what is bipolar". It's not relevant to the discussion, and if you wish to do that, you can go and have the discussion elsewhere.

I asked why people wanted to be bipolar. I did not ask "What is the cause behind bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses." I don't see how that's relevant to the question at all.