Getting Started

I'm starting this blog for many reasons I suppose. When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 11, I felt lost. I felt like I was suddenly this crazy person and no one would ever understand me. A quick search on the internet lead me to a blog of a woman who had been living with Bipolar Disorder for EIGHTY YEARS. It gave me hope. If she could make it that long I could too. Her blog basically just detailed her experiences with medications, depression, mania and anything else related to bipolar disorder. She had at one point even been on the same medications as me and her honesty about some of the more awkward side effects (like not being able to tell reality from dream) helped me to understand what I was experiencing and feel like less of a freak. So I suppose that's one of my main reasons for doing this. I guess I'm also kind of doing this for me. I want to be heard. I want people to know that YES people with bipolar disorder do act crazy sometimes. We get depressed and cut ourselves and cry and scream. We get manic and we run away and spend tons of money and feel on top of the world. What I've found most people don't understand is we do did not ASK to be this way. We did not CHOOSE to be this way. I want people to read this and understand that I'm a person, not a freak, not a mental patient and I have a voice.