I am bipolar. I never drank or did any drugs. Using it as an excuse for your actions isn't good because you still have control. But it's amazing how after going through a year or so of antidepressants, hiding being sad for years or so because it's not normal, and other medications them not working, that when you get put on lithium you feel better.

You can say I'm lieing, and I made it up. But, whatever some things do work.

You don't think a sedetary life style filled with processed foods and over stimulization leads to depression and anxiety? If not than there's no point in discussing this further. It's like heart disease, some people are born with a genetic tendency to develope the disease, while others do so because of life style.

With the diet of sugar and processed fake food its no wonder kids and adults are unstable. Highs and lows... Highs and lows..

Look, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about other than just making up crap about "shadows" or "part of the problem" or whatever.  Where the bloody hell did you even dig up "hard workers"?  Nevermind.  I don't want any part of your hyberbole.  You don't want to have a rational conversation and I don't want to have a conversation with someone who is going to be childish about this.  You don't have to agree with me but can have some respect in terms of your arguments.  The fuck do you even know about my family?  Enabler?  Really?  Because I let her stay in my house?  No, really, go away.  I'm done here.

On top of which both promote  release of cortisol (stress hormone) and less production of seratonin (happy hormone).

I'm not *disagreeing* with you. I just think you should be a lot more careful in how you are presenting your opinion. It comes off rather heavily on the "fact" side, and not nearly enough on the opinion side, which is what it is.

Obesity only increases risks, not causes, and on a side not it literally increases risk of everything. It is a poison.
Overstimulation has hit or miss results depending on the person.

My problem with your assessment isn't that you're wrong. It's that it's not accurate enough to be used as an answer by itself, which is how you used it. The way you answer the OP sounds like, "people bring these problems onto themselves", which is a very, I dunno the right word, aggressive stance. I just don't think you should answer a question with something like that, because 1) it's heartless, and aggressive 2) it's just fuzzy math and a handful of spin.

What question do you want me to ask you?

You told a story about your sister who uses her disorder as a crutch. Then you said people do that too much, and then ended by referring to it as a "get out of jail free" card.

I'm saying, she uses it as a crutch because (I assumed you) SOMEONE enabled her to do so. However, OTHER than her, WHO ELSE uses it as a crutch, and in what way, and where is the get out of jail free card come into all of this. You're mad about something and refusing to tell me.

Mental illness is so real it's unreal. But saying that I agree with the poster above. A lot of people diagnosed with mental illness feel some sense of entitlement and then get angry when people are like no stop it, this is due to your personality not your illness. It's about ownership. My mother has had two break downs and I love her so much it hurts but sometimes I think for fuck sake this is typical you. I once thought I myself had a mental disorder. I then realised I was just a twat and tried hard to adjust my behaviour. I'm still not perfect but I'm makin leaps and bounds. I also thought I had mental disability because I couldn't cope with the people in my life who Have mental disorders. But having to look after people and be selfless makes you snap out of that haha. There is no time for me to be mentally challenged!

Now you seem like a very reasonable dude. Compassionate, understanding, realistic, and hard working. People ITT could learn a thing or two from you, imo.

Being Seriously Bi-polar I, I can tell you that when you are manic, that it's like being on recreational drugs.  I know because i experimented with them in my early 20's.  I'm in my early 40's now and when i'm seriously manic, it's like being on shrooms or acid along with extasy along with some sort of upper. (I didn't try every drug when I was younger but i'm sure one of them is like how I can get.  I actually think that my extasy use made my bipolar much, much worse...I didn't abuse it like some people do however I did enough and seeing how a manic episode works, the two looks so related its scary).  When manic I make bad decisions, I say stupid things, the more I don't sleep and when you're manic, it's impossible to sleep, the worse I get.   I have my GF take my keys to my car and I exist on anything I can make in the toaster or microwave because i've almost lit fires while using the stove and forgot to take something off that was on a burner.

Strangely enough, some of the dumber bi-polar people purposefully go off their drugs so that they force a manic episode to make themselves feel good.

When I am depressed and thank god that the medication I am on now keeps me from going seriously depressed anymore, the feeling of self loathing, of hatred for how you feel is so bad that you literally want to kill yourself.  Yes, it can get that bad.

NOW, that being said, most people are a> not bipolar b> not seriously enough bipolar that it explains their problems.  I know a ton of people who explain someone's mood swings are being bipolar which is absolutely not right.  I believe that there are tons of depressed people but those feelings of depression are psychologically caused by their environment and such, not physiological like bi-polar and clinical depression are.  Clinical depression can be caused by a drop in endorphins...the main chemicals in your brain that make you feel good.  A long term drop in endorphin production can and does cause you to be depressed...even without situational problems.

The statistics say that like less than 5% of people show any type of bi-polar like mood behaviors and a very very very small portion of those are seriously bi-polar (Bipolar 1 like I am.)   Most of the people you see and hear about are just making excuses for their behvavior.  It's easy to use BP as an excuses because its extremely hard to PROVE you're BP or not like alone which level of BP you are  I, II or Cyclothymia.

If someone is saying they are BP to explain some sort of thing they did, I doubt that BP was the reason in almost all the cases.  Most BP people I know want as few people to know about what they are capable of.  Being out of control is embarassing.  It's not as bad as being 90 years old and shitting the bed but it's not much better.  For me I am a control freak when it comes to my behavior so the loss of control on a manic episode makes me suffer immensely.  To limit the damage of these episodes, I know when I am starting to go manic so I batten down the hatches and put myself in a good position to limit the damage to my life.  

These other people talking about how they when BP and mental?  Sorry....they're either a> lying b> idiots for not managing their condition c> a small chance that they don't have a support system/system of making sure they're safe until things calm down.