By: Air Brin

When I say ‘they’ I mean some type of psychiatric professional who has been trained by some other psychiatric professionals. I don’t mean the inner voice screaming at you day in and day out. Of course, if that voice is screaming at you from outside of the window or a random tree, then you have a whole other set of psychiatric troubles.

While statistics on Bipolar Disorder vary more than your mood swings, there’s something like an 80% chance you have had suicidal thoughts. There’s a 50% chance you will try to take your life and a 15% chance that if you try you will succeed.

If you have health insurance you will see a psychiatrist and take medication for the rest of your life. Most likely off and on because at some point you will convince yourself you are fine now and don’t need it anymore, when really you are probably just having a manic episode and should be telling your doctor these grand ideas that you are suddenly cured.

If you don’t have health insurance you will probably spend countless hours researching programs that may or may not help you depending on all kinds of factors. You will drive yourself crazy. You will post insane gibberish on Craigslist.com’s Rants and Raves section. You will give yourself a name like ‘Pissed off and Proud’ or ‘Only the Lonely’ or some other ridiculous moniker.

You will have trouble keeping a job. You will work at Starbucks for the health insurance benefits. People will think of you as the crazy fun Starbucks person and when those benefits kick in and you go to that doctor for the first time and are told, “You have the classic symptoms of someone dealing with Bipolar Disorder,” everything in life will start to make sense.

“That’s why I dropped out of college and spent the last of my financial aid on beads and colored pencils. I really thought I could make a go of selling jewelry and caricatures at local craft fairs.”

“So, that’s why I slept with seven guys in one week causing the demise of the best relationship I ever had!”

And, “Oh, that’s why I spent senior year severely depressed about… wait… what was I depressed about?!”

So, you get the prescriptions filled and take your medicine. Suddenly, everything changes. There’s a 20% chance I will never contemplate suicide! There’s a 50% chance I will never attempt it if I do think about it, and there’s an 85% chance that even if I try it, I WILL LIVE!

Soon you will become aware that you are not alone. Crazy it seems attracts crazy and you will probably find that the other Starbucks’ baristas are bipolar, too. You will make friends that will potentially become your support group. If you’re lucky you will even get back into school and make a fine life for yourself. All in all, you will experience the highest of highs and lowest of lows and really learn to appreciate the balance of normalcy.

Just for the record, if you are asking yourself the question that perhaps you are thinking… the answer is no. I have never made jewelry.

For more information on bipolar statistics quoted in this article please visit http://www.everydayhealth.com/bipolar-disorder/bipolar-and-suicide-risk.aspx.

For even further inquiry into bipolar disorder and to learn what you can do to help please visit http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=54&ContentID=23037.