My Bipolar Experience Submitted by Flaco

( Photograph taken by post author, Flaco )


"Everybody hurts."
-Michael Stipe


A very true statement indeed. From heads of state to trashmen. From kings and queens to court jesters and clowns. People hurting, is as natural, and consistent, as the sun rising. Feelings of immortality, and indestructabilty, are most certainly not; natural feelings. It is not, the sad people we observe, and ponder : "How do they do that?;" but rather the overtly happy ones. That stands out more. Larger than life, get noticed.


My Bipolar diagnosis began when i was 20, in post-adolescence. I am now 35. I had a lot on my table in my 1st year of my music school. Upon coming to the MDJunction Bipolar support group, I noticed a plethora of people with a very similiar diagnosis story, as mine. Early in post-adolescence, with the demanding grind of the 1st year of college, creating a frenzied pace with little sleep. Meeting an overwhelming amount of people, while keeping up an exhausting pace, the likes of which hadn't been seen for somebody, until that point in their life, takes it up a notch.


In therapy for so long, my woes and hurt, were the topic du jour, and nothing was out of the ordinary. When magically, one day, all of them were gone, that was, out of the ordinary. Not normal. The other side. Manic. I felt indestructable. That's when we got the inkling that I was Bipolar. One visit later to a doctor, and it was confirmed.

- Flaco