Founder who lived with bipolar for years started a company to tackle the stigma

FYI - I am Daniel's co-founder, if you have any questions on Campfire or whatev's.

Thanks for posting the article. I have been a software engineer for 15 years who has been struggling with issues due to being bipolar (and undiagnosed until a year ago).

I've had a hard time accepting my diagnosis but have taken steps as of late to start moving forward with treatment.

The few people who have found out that I am bipolar (and who don't know me well) claim that I am making up my illness as I seem fine on the surface. I think certain people believe that I am not bipolar because I am a skilled engineer (obviously anyone with the ability to reason knows this makes no sense).

Certain family members have cut me off after the diagnosis as well.

The poor reactions I've had are forcing me to keep silent about my issues, so I'm glad to see other people coming out with theirs.

My belief is that everyone has minor bouts of mania and depression, and bipolar people just experience it more extreme. My psychiatrists have flirted with a bipolar diagnosis but ultimately they think it’s standard anxiety / depression.

Every few months I go through a week where I barely sleep, my mind is racing, work nonstop, empathy decreases, basically feel on top of the world. And similar every few months I will have a week where I can barely get out of bed, no motivation, apathetic, can barely focus.

I have mechanisms learned to deal with both situations and it has very little effect on my life. I can recognize it and so does my wife. So does this mean I’m bipolar? “Minorly bipolar?”

Psychiatrist diagnoses do not have true tests. They get made based on observations and written tests. It’s useful to give things names, but mental health in general is very weird and unpredictable. Drugs work but doctors have to theorize as to why they work.

I know this is unrelated to the company in the article, but maybe this post is useful to the discussion / someone experiencing similar things.

Let me suggest you start a food diary as a useful tool. I have been successful in mitigating certain somatopsychic symptoms largely using diet.

Bi polar is just a meme these days, every second woman decides that she is "bi polar" which is just a way to justify their general childish behaviour and lack of accountability. That's why it is always refreshing to hear about bi polar men, they seems to be the real deal.