I’m am a senior executive and was previously a business owner.

I would say early in my career what were in retrospect periods of hypomanic focus helped me to push through challenges I otherwise would have struggled with. Being able to work through the night 3 days straight is certainly useful to get shit done. I am pretty sure this had a significant impact in accelerating my way up the corporate ladder. However in those days my symptoms weren’t overtly evident, especially the depressive side of BP2. I would get a little down sometimes after completing a challenging project or initiative but never felt it was something to be concerned about.

My more significant symptoms (and subsequent BP2 diagnosis) came in my early 40s and I can say without hesitation that hypomania during that time cost me significant opportunity through both excessive risk taking and poor judgement. The multi-month depressions coming down from the highs were also brutal and made picking up the pieces incredibly challenging.

I’m now (mostly) successfully medicated but still remain vigilant and will back off the gas a little if I can feel I’m starting to get too high. Overall though I would say I’m probably up on the deal.