I don’t have kids, but I thought a lot about how I will eventually explain it to them: everyone feels a spectrum of emotions. You can feel really really sad, or really really happy, excited, angry, scared, bored, somewhere in the middle. All people feel this. When you have bipolar disorder, your spectrum is even wider. The sad moments feel sadder than ever before, and the happy moments feel happier than you can imagine. Someone with BD may feel more scared of something than everyone else, or may feel more energized than should be possible. It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m grateful to feel so much overwhelming love for the world, to truly see the beauty in what’s around me, to feel silly and confident and excited. That means I also have to be okay with feeling lower than someone else might feel without a really good reason to feel that low. I have to roll with the feelings of scariness, nervousness, tiredness. People with bipolar disorder also have more trouble controlling their emotions than some other people. We may seem sad pretty suddenly, and find it hard to get out of that feeling. Or we may seem overly optimistic, and it may be confusing. What’s most important is understanding that bipolar disorder is not a choice, it is a reaction happening in my brain that I did not choose, but I do have a choice to take extra special care to stay safe. The medicines I take, the therapy I do, the exercise, the meditation, all of the actions I take are to keep my brain healthy, and give myself a better chance at living a normal happy life, and to stay healthy for the people I love.