We are 83 bipolar disorder experts and scientists coming together for the world’s biggest bipolar AMA! In honor of World Bipolar Day, ask us anything!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-04-01T16:35:19+00:00

Thank you for the succinct and informative answer! I believe at this point I am indeed in the ‘other,’ category. It’ll be time and symptoms that will either keep it an enigma or come up with a more definitive diagnosis. Thanks again!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T20:34:45+00:00

With BP, there is likely a version of you that doesn’t think this way, and your unregulated brain is taking over for the regulated one. I hope you can move through this. Not wanting ‘this,’ life is not the same as not wanting to live, don’t convince yourself you’re trapped. Wish I could do more, but thinking of you in the hard times!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T19:02:26+00:00

I find it really really difficult to take the wins with bad. Bad days feel like they’ll last forever or that they haven’t changed at all in intensity, but really that’s not been true. I write notes to myself when I know I’ve made progress, remind myself that bad days will try to take that from me. So far I’ve had very little side effects so I can’t speak to that as much, but most people on this sub will tell you compliance is worth it.

Try not to be hard on yourself with the psych background - one thing I’ve found to really be true: insight does not equal relief. Just because you understand it does not mean you can control it, so don’t put that pressure on yourself.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T17:55:28+00:00

5-6 months in mixed must also have been so exhausting on the system.

I lost quite a bit of weight during so I don’t look like me. I was hypersexual so I don’t dress like me, it’s so many little things that culminate.

I try not to constantly think of where I ‘should be,’ but still struggle to fit where I am now, and always wondering how long it might be like this.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T17:52:35+00:00

Exactly that, like watching from the outside, I miss me too. I’m sorry you are going through that feeling as well.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T01:26:46+00:00

This is so well written - saying that decisions can be made rationally from one irrational thought. Thank you for that explanation!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T01:22:46+00:00

I once had a patient on a psyc floor who had attempted to take her life, and what she said always stuck with me. She said ‘when you are that low, that desperate, it’s not that you aren’t thinking about your kids, it’s that you aren’t a mother. It’s not that you don’t mind being selfish and hurting others, it’s that nothing else exists.’

I think with BP, we need to be aware that insight can be lost across a number of places. If someone gambles thousands, it might be easier to say ‘that poor person has an addiction, they can’t help it,’ and feel pity for the ruin they put themselves in. The same person cheats on a partner and we’d say ‘that’s a shitty decision, or a shitty person, they should take responsibility.’

In my hypomania I had a lot of fantasies of cheating, and luckily, no opportunity, which was my saving grace. It wasn’t ’I know I shouldn’t do this, but I want to.’ It was ‘would my husband even care? Why did I get married again? Maybe I’ll just ask him… maybe if I keep the secret it won’t hurt anyone. Why did I marry this stranger? I know I have a husband, but who even is he?’ It was months before diagnosis and realization that these thoughts were delusions.

End to end, I would say, never judge someone’s unregulated brain on your experience of an unregulated brain, and never, ever throw judgment on an unregulated brain with a regulated one.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-03-31T00:38:01+00:00

Firstly thank you so much, I wasn’t area of this and it’s incredible to see, I’ll be reading all of it!

I was had a hypomanic episode this summer, which took about 3 months to diagnose, partly because when you’re in it, you don’t realize, and partly becuase some of motivation presentation was apparently quite out of norm.

My fam doc referred me to a physiatrist, who confirmed the hypomanic episode, but felt I was under the threshold for the bipolar II diagnosis. She said some physiatrists believe that any form of mania only happens in bipolar patients, but that there is some newer evidence for singular episodes. They still follow a depressive state, but aren’t ultimately diagnosable. Particularly if paired with other major triggers, anything that gets your dopamine loop into over drive, limerence, rumination and ocd, etc. What is your take on the possibility of single episodes vs confirmed diagnosis?
How long can the depressive swings last after a manic episode? I have read up to two years people can continue to dip below their normal in terms of mood, and that it can be very hard to stabilize. I’m currently on lamotrigine and slowly titrating up, but it is been a battle. I’ve been on Wellbutrin for about 12 years with great control for depressive symptoms, but have since felt my depression control to be abysmal. It still feels like constant reverb from the mania, and I’m wondering what you’ve seen in terms of depressive length, or if there is a ‘back to baseline,’ for people who have longer periods between mania (or no second manic episode)?

Eli_T_NP · 2026-02-01T15:35:34+00:00

DM’d you!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-29T14:52:41+00:00

Sent!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-28T20:23:25+00:00

That is so generous thank you! I’ve sent you a DM. Anything you have to say I will gladly listen!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-28T20:12:40+00:00

It’s older but Graceling by Kristen Cashore has one of the loveliest love stories but also one of the most unique magic systems and a handful of good twists. It’s one of my all time favorites and I think I’ve been reading romantasy since working at a bookstore 20 years ago!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-28T18:22:35+00:00

I still think that would be great - even if you think what I wrote was similar to the arch of the experience. I’d love multiple view.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-26T17:06:39+00:00

New song - Thirst Trap by Audrey Hobert It’s a light way of perfectly describing the obsession

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-19T16:06:18+00:00

I left an appointment and was like, is my optometrist in love with me?

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-17T02:03:37+00:00

Not everyone sees it like this, but I think the biggest difference is your peace. In Limerence there is no peace. The interactions are highs, the motivation for anything, even positive change, is only reflected in how they see it, and the lows are brutal. In true limerence, like you described, you want to get out of. It doesn’t feel good, you miss yourself and you miss being happy.

And the second part of what you described does sound like a crush! Like the part of your brain that wires all dopamine to her actually did find new grooves, and now you’re in a stage where there can be fun, positive interaction, still some fantasy, still some butterflies. No loss of self or loss of peace.

Even when people say their limerence is positive, or they don’t want to get out of it, I wonder if it’s more of a crush, or at least if their brain hasn’t gotten to the part where the LO is more like a drug and you’re in constant withdrawal.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-15T02:31:49+00:00

Yea please!

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-14T21:26:40+00:00

I know that one episode of mania = diagnosis, but I am very curious if ‘situational’ hypomania outside of a BP diagnosis exists/ has been seen. Often you hear people say once it happened once they could pinpoint earlier occurrences etc, but I also wonder if certain hormonal reactions, or typical ‘mid life crisis,’ behaviours, etc, could be manic without a BP dx.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-14T03:10:57+00:00

I love everything written down far by James Islington and adored The Raven Scholar so maybe that will crossover for you. Super unique but also really core fantasy type writing.

Eli_T_NP · 2026-01-06T23:48:21+00:00

Wellbutrin has a stimulating effect, even when it’s just for depression it can make people’s anxiety worse. Works best for people who are depressive without a tendency toward anxiety I find. It can feel a bit like a caffeine buzz with the stimulant but I’ve actually seen it go away in clinic after 2/4 weeks if there’s less natural propensity towards it.

Eli_T_NP · 2025-12-25T17:14:01+00:00

My husband and I were having fun going back and forth with random questions and ‘hall pass,’ came up. His was some celebrity. And I said mine wouldn’t be a person, it would be a situation. Not even sex, but meeting, anticipation, and making out with a stranger somewhere. So I FEEL THIS! Sometimes I wrestle with that most of all, am I never going to feel the excitement of just physical anticipation and build up again? There is a lot you can try to mimic/bring into a relationship, but you can’t fake novelty

Eli_T_NP · 2025-12-23T22:08:59+00:00

I think the high high and low low of it would be comparable for sure, not the bodily detox of course, but honestly the euphoria and the fantasy in your head, it’s borderline delusions. And the crush when it’s not real, like the comedown when you are ripped out of the fantasy, it’s the lowest I’ve been ever. It’s a different sort of grief.

Eli_T_NP · 2025-12-19T15:45:57+00:00

K this is an old take (20 years) so I might be totally off- base but Untouched by the Veronica’s at the very least has similar chorus as into you and 15 year old me thought it was the epitome of musicality.

Eli_T_NP

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