Mental Illness

In November, I discovered that I have bipolar disorder. I ended up having a complete nervous breakdown that lasted for four straight months. If it wasn't for my mom and video games (seriously) I wouldn't be alive right now. Finally, I found the right medication to keep me sane, and after realising that nothing really changed except the fact that I had to take a few pills every day, I accepted it and moved on. Even though I've been going through the aftermath, I've moved on and I'm starting to get my life back on track. Does anybody else have a similar disorder and actually comfortable enough to talk about it?

I do have post-traumatic stress disorder (not severe anymore), but I'm not sure if it's categorized as a mental illness.

I've always been curious as to what it's like to not be in complete control of how we consciously think. Bipolar disorder is actually one of those things I could never imagine happening to me, of course, because I don't have it, but curiosity is a bitch.

I don't have any mental illness's myself, but my family does have paranoid schizophrenia in it. My grandpa on my dad's side. It skipped my Dad's generation and didn't seem to affect my brother or I.

My grandpa has been in a mental hospital for god knows how long. I remember one story from when he took a bus to go to Ocean City to gamble, and he refused to get off the bus because he was convinced people outside were waiting for him to get off to kill him. My Nanny had to go down herself and pick him up, because he refused to get off the bus.

I'm not bipolar but i have a kind of mental illness ... I'm depressive , after trying to kill myself one year ago i went to a psychiatric hospital for one mount , at first i didn't want to take antidepressant pills because i wanted my brain to stay "pure" (i didn't want to be artificialy happy) . I'm still not happy and still not taking antidepressant lol . But I try to change my life entirely , with the support of my phychologist and my psychiatrist things are goign pretty well

My personality is melancholic, which according to most google searches is a mental illness, so in a way it would seem I'm mentally ill, though I myself dont believe so.

I've always been curious about bipolarity, too. Curiosity is a bitch indeed.

Its good that you're able to find something to help you with your illness and that you're getting back into the flow of things.
I have an anxiety disorder.
When I first started getting anxiety attacks, I didn't know what was happening. So I had a small case of agoraphobia until I saw a therapist and was put on a safe medication to help me through my anxiety.
I'm doing better now, but still have attacks.
Its an unconscious thing too, I usually don't know what triggers my attacks. >__<;

I have depression. It doesn't affect me as much as it used. I would visit the psychiatric hospital, every week or so. It help in the short run. On the long run, every now and then , i would just wake up all sad. Depressed. I didn't take medicine or any form of treatment, other than daily routines. It altered my life just a little enough to get me to dwell into the world.

Anxiety disorder, a fairly severe one. I was in the psych ward for 4 days last year. My meds stopped working and I became strangely suicidal etc. I checked myself in (rather embarrassing) and yeah that wasn't fun at all. I sympathize with anyone who has bipolar, anxiety, depression etc. I have symptoms of lots of things in that ballpark, so I was just diagnosed a generic "Generalized Anxiety Disorder."

@Aki, the first time you have a panic attack is something you'll never forget, there's nothing quite like it, sorry to hear that you suffer with them as well.

I'm dyslexic, but I don't think that really counts. My aunt is schizophrenic. Shes lived with me and my family most of my life. Its not a really sever case but she has fainted in the past. She also treats me and my brothers as though were about 10 years old. I think shes lost track of time. She was in the hospitable for a little while(For skipping her meds) a few years ago and after that things where never really the same.

Bipolar is basically a severe illness where you cycle rapidly between mania and depression. Mania can come in a bunch of forms, like extreme euphoria triggered by nothing, illogical and extreme rage which is hard but possible to control, and other different forms. depression is, well, depression to an extreme state, for example, during my breakdown, I wanted to kill myself for no logical reason multiple times, I just laid in bed a lot, "watching" my tv that was turned off for hours. I mainly had the insane rage and depression. there are three types of bipolar disorder. Bipolar 1 (close to what i have), 2 (bipolar 1 with psychosis added), and NOS (not otherwise specified, which is what i have, and is closer to bipolar 1.) most people don't know mental illness is genetic. I was born with it and it ended up appearing in my early childhood, triggered by my abusive father. Mental illnesses can be triggered by any traumatic events.

I've also got a triple handicap, Bipolar disorder, severe Social Anxiety disorder, and panic disorder, all compounded by my normal paranoid, OCD self.

If you randomly start freaking out over nothing, that is not anxiety. That, my friend is panic disorder. you panic over nothing, freak out, get paranoid, etc. I've got that too.

and thanks, it's nice to actually have a good life now.

I know the feeling about not wanting to take the pills. but trust me, it's better than dying.

I think I don't have a Bipolar disorder.

But I do believe that I have an AvPD.

I also had Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) before and it was like a hell life for me. I almost lost myself because of it but thank God I have been able to move on with my life without even consulting a psychiatrist.

Well..... I had a case of split personality before in my freshmen and sophomore years.... and at that time, i was still called "sandbag" for it..... i wont speak of it anymore as it is to painful to remember....

I had a pituitary tumor in high school that was causing me to have near psychotic depression luckily my doctor noticed it and was able to have it removed

I had suicidal thoughts when I failed to pass my research paper during my high school years. And I also thought that if that didn't work I'll tell my Gramps to kill my teacher. Fortunately, I was too scared too hurt myself and too merciful to seek revenge. I still have those thoughts though and I don't think it will be gone until my late twenties.

personaly im kinda dyslexic, it shows up sometimes when i write but its really a bitch when i have to deal with numbers. i amused the hell out of my math teacher when i tried a long addition problem ten times and came up with ten different answer, none of them even being close.


my mom seemed like she was bi-polar during the later stages of the divorce, i was living with her at the time and she would go from magorly paranoid to suicidally depressed to so angry i feared for my life sometimes. that had me pretty depressed at the time and i almost slit my wrists a couple times out of desperation. but now i just call her a bitch and move on XD

I have a severe case of constant insomnia. I also have add, which is fun....Luckily I am not bi-polar.

I've got insomnia too. As I'm typing this, it's 5 AM. and i've only gotten about two hours of sleep this past week.