Draconator

Please give me a moment. Seeing that rock on Cynthia's ring finger has me disappointed. Please just don't tell my wife.

I certainly don't

I just started drinking. A couple of more beers will have me using correct gramma

If #41 is cut by the Colts, Beane should take a flyer on him, just because of his awesome flowing hair. Who cares if he can play good.

@Airseven

Don't let what happened younger in life to be carried by you later in life.

Ask Terry

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ehURXcMujmJ7IO_MbsDuMWmf4zn42LMD?usp=sharing

IronMaidenBills. If he wanted a different identity, he should have changed that hideous avatar.

But, but, but, no roof

You're welcome and I 1000% agree. We need more awareness.

The car episode does sound like a manic episode. The story about your mom's cousin to me (and I'm no professional) sounds more like mild schizophrenia than bipolar. Those diagnosed with Bipolar don't normally blurt out inappropriate things, while people with schizophrenia do things like that. Thank you for sharing those stories.

Thank you for sharing your back history. If we can get past the stigma of mental health, we would all be in a much better place. And you're right. The quality of the professional is key. My current therapist visited with me for 3 hours and confirmed my initial diagnosis. We suspect my dad was Bipolar. In his later years, he didn't deny that he had it and said his mom also may have had it. Bipolar is heredity.

and infrastructure.

Thank you. I've always been one to help, so if this helps anyone, I've met my goal for this.

Got this idea from the Johnny Manziel thread on TSW. I shared some of my Bipolar journey there but thought it wouldn't hurt to start a new thread specifically for Bipolar. I am an open book when it comes to this. So if you had any deep, dark questions about Bipolar in general, feel free to ask me anything about it. I'll give you an answer from my real life experience having been diagnosed with it for 16 years now. I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 with Rapid Cycling in April 2007. What led me to my diagnosis was the break-up with my ex. I didn't take it well, and seeing a doctor at the clinic I was going to, what I was going through clued him in that I may have BIpolar. So I met with a county psychiatrist for close to 2 hours. That's when she diagnosed me with Bipolar 1 with Rapid Cycling. Bipolar 1 is the more severe form of Bipolar. Rapid Cycling is you have manic and depressed events 3 or 4 times a day, as opposed to 3 or 4 times a year with someone with BIpolar who doesn't have rapid cycling. What is it like to live with Bipolar? You spend a LOT of money while manic. It's nothing to drop that month's rent at the casino, trying to pay for rent. You already have it, but you feel you need more money for it. You drive like a lunatic. Like 75 in a 35 is no big thing. You want to have sex a lot and will ask any female to have sex with you. I didn't resort to abuse thank goodness, but having a lot of sex is a form of mania that many bipolar folks have. You drink a LOT. In my earlier days, I would spend $150 to $200 a night at a bar, buying drinks for random strangers. I still do have about 2 to 4 drinks a night. But I am not drinking in order to get hammered drunk. In fact, I hate being drunk. I know I joke about my drinking here, but I do drink more than my fair share. When I'm feeling a good amount of buzz, I'm done or take a long break between drinks. With my now wife, I was living near Oakland, California, and her in Buffalo when we reconnected. We went to high school together, and we were in show choir, chrous, orchestra, musicals, and plays together. We however didn't say more than 5 sentences to each other. She had her own group of friends and I had mine. We reconnected via Facebook. Facebook messages turned into phone calls. On our second call, I told her I had bipolar. Not wanting to hide it. Her response made me think she's a keeper. She said, "How can I help you with it"? She still helps me. Whenever I feel like I'm entering a cycle, I tell her exactly that, and she immediately sits me down and we talk about what I'm feeling, and how I can make it through it. Thankfully, I haven't had any real cycles for a few years now. Her help and the medication I am on have made a tremendous difference. For those playing at home, I take Latuda as my main medication. Last winter I was entering a depression. I spoke to Jen my wife who encouraged me to see my PA. She diagnosed me with severe seasonal affective disorder. So she also prescribed me Trileptal which back in 2011, was my main bipolar medication. Back in my time in California, I was seeing a county psychiatrist. She could only prescribe medications that were approved by the county. So Latuda was not an option. When I moved to New York, I was in the Erie County Medical Center psych unit the first month after I arrived, because I didn't have a doctor at the time and was off medication. Jen worked with me after I was released (thankfully after 2 hours instead of the mandatory 72-hour hold), helped me find a doctor, and got me back on medication. I was taking different medications with screwy side effects. I was on Geodon, which gave me daily mini-seizures. Also, while on Geodon, I could not drink alcohol, at all. I had a glass of champagne at midnight on December 31, 2013, and passed right out 5 minutes later. The most common side effect of bipolar medication, and true in my case, is excessive weight gain. When I started on medication, I was around 205 lbs. I'm currently 280 lbs. I don't tend to lose any significant weight either. I was at my lowest 240 lbs a few years ago, while working out every day and intermittent fasting. Once I stopped fasting and working out daily, the weight came right back. More as it pops into my head. Feel free to ask me about what I stated above, or anything about bipolar in general. Or go ahead and call me tubby. I'll just sit on you and fart in your general direction.

When I was standing on the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge, I had been talking to a close friend. I decided after going to work that morning I was going to end my life and messaged her to tell her, so she could watch after my daughter. We were in constant contact all day. When she didn't hear from me after a while, she called me. I just so happened to be standing on the bridge. She simply said, "Just go to the psych ER one more time. If it doesn't work, you have my permission to kill yourself". That sounded reasonable to me, and that's what got me into the ER. So yes. It was divine intervention.

My wife and I plan a trip every February, just to get a break from all the suck. We've been to Nassau and Key West (2020), California, Nevada, and Arizona (2021), Laurel, Mississippi which is a wonderful little town (2022), and a 10-day Caribbean cruise (2023). We are going to visit my daughter and her visiting boyfriend in Californa in 2024. She lives in California, and her boyfriend lives in The Netherlands. She's there right now visiting him.

The summers here are glorious. But the 6 months plus of doom and gloom is depressing. When you're driving back to Buffalo during the winter from the south, you get to about Cleveland, and you see the line of grey suck. It extends all the way to Buffalo.

My wife helped to stabilize me, and my new therapist agreed to try a medication I wanted to take back in California. I've been on that medication for 8 years. That and my wife's help helped to stabilize me greatly. You never know what is right around the corner. I'm grateful for your awareness.

Einstein will at least engage with those that outright disagree with him, or defend his position. Airseven just blasts out negative opinions, and then runs and hides when he is confronted with those opinions. Einstein > Airseven. (Although both make me drink)

I didn't watch it, but read that when he was diagnosed with Bipolar, he didn't accept it and went into a spiral. As one who also has Bipolar, unless you find the right partner/therapy/medication, it is nothing to play around with. I was standing on the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge, ready to jump. My therapist at the time played around with my medication. Thankfully I walked off and went to the Psych ER instead, got my meds straightened out, and reconnected with my now wife 4 months later.

Can't believe this hasn't been mentioned.

I'm very familiar with the Union location. We may be contacting them, as my wife wants to go from the funeral home to the cemetery in a horse-drawn, glass-enclosed hearse. The only thing is, the Town of West Seneca prohibits horses on town roads, so we would have to get the Erie County Sherrif's horses to pull the hearse.

So, mark my death on my Google calendar. Got it. I kid.