Mental Illness that is hard to understand. It is NOT a split-personality, and it does NOT include alter-egos. That is personality disorder/schizophrenia. When you are manic, it is the equivalent of being high. Its like driving very very fast without brakes. You usually cannot see that you are manic, and it really pisses you off when someone points it out to you. When you do realize you are manic, its after you've done/said something horrible. At this point, you feel that even if you get back in control, it is too late, you've already fucked up. This feeds the mania, and keeps it going. It is almost impossible to sleep when manic, and you get crazy ideas.
When you are depressed, it is horrible. The whole world is in shades of grey. No one can pull you out of it.
Bipolar should not always be viewed as negative. The way I see it, it is compensation. When someone is extremely smart, creative, or talented, it disrupts the balance in the brain. So, the brain must do something to restore the balance. ADD, Bipolar, Depression, etc. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert E. Lee, Beethoven, Buzz Aldrin, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Isaac Newton, Plato (according to Aristotle), St. Francis, St. John, St. Theresa, Mark Twain, T.S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Victor Hugo, I think you get the idea.
Just realize, every gift comes with a curse, and every curse comes with a gift.
If you take medicine, and practice self-control, you can harness your mania and channel it into a talent.