One of my biggest problems living with bipolar is that I often take life too seriously. Everything is lived on the bipolar extreme... it's all so intense and in your face. Every little inconsequential interaction with someone is the make and break of your emotional world. A wrong consultant in your Centrelink interview can result in Tolstoy's War And Peace of suffering. The ignorance that others have of the amazing depths and breadths of what you emotionally invest in everything you do is a mortal slight, the proverbial removal of your heart from your chest with a chainsaw.

As bipolar sufferers, we need to realise this emotional intensity of ours, accept it, roll with it, and minimise the damage it causes to ourselves and those around us. Yes - everything we do is invested in emotional energy strong enough to scare off most "sane" people. And with good reason. Our lives are intense. We often career from extreme to extreme, and the collateral damage can be huge.

It's at times when life is most "real" for us that we need to take a step back and take life a little less seriously. Otherwise we risk getting caught up in our emotional storms and losing it totally. Been there, done that...

I guess it's all about finding a workable balance. Too serious and intense, and you end up with everyone running from you. Too light and fluffy, and you end up being a reality TV caricature of a real person...

I've driven myself into deep depressions in my life on numerous occasions, and it has all been as a result of seeing the wrongs in the world and yet being largely helpless to do anything about them. I then ruminate on those ills, and my impotent rage starts to bubble. The next step in my decline is usually a deep resignation and helplessness once the rage passes, and I arrive at my usual spot in the bottom of the pit. Heck, I've been down in that pit so often that there's a reserved sign and valet parking for me...

I have found that this pattern is part of my disorder - a super-strong value set, combined with a hypersensitive nature. Add a pinch of bipolar, and the recipe for disaster is complete...

If possible, I need to try and find ways to stop this cycle from repeating quite so periodically and quite so extremely. It is detrimental to me, with emphasis on the mental...