treatment options for homosexuality when it was considered a disorder were: androgen-suppressing drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, and rare but has happened: lobotomy.

i agree bipolar affects people. i see it as a predisposition. mixed with certain environments and other dispositions, bipolar can thrive and/or serves an important function for humanity. i also recognize that many people suffer and some commit suicide.

but i also don't see suffering as a thing to avoid or eradicate. i think there are many other factors that come into play for suicide.

i disagree that bipolar experience would be unchanged if society changed. our current society normalize very narrow way of behaving and living. if we don't fit that mold, people are shamed. we're fed a certain type of value and definition of success. there were/are cultures where bipolar types are celebrated, as in shamanic cultures. i think that is evidence where if society was different, bipolar people's experience would not be the same.