“In the wake of a bipolar diagnosis, parents, friends, and relatives who didn’t recognize the signs of mental illness are probably thinking:

‘I thought he was just stressed out by exams.’

‘I tried to be nice to her when I saw her.’

‘I just thought he was drunk.’

‘I thought she really was pregnant with Steven Colbert’s baby.’

‘He did always talk about a lot of weird stuff.’

‘I thought she was just working too hard.’

‘He seemed perfectly normal.’

‘She was always so cheerful. I can’t believe she was depressed.’

‘If only I’d paid more attention, I could have gotten him help sooner.’

‘I had absolutely no idea.’

-Welcome to the Jungle by Hillary Smith

I really resonate with people having odd reactions to learning you’re bipolar. I walked up to a parent of someone I knew on the street and they just chewed me out for some of my actions I made while my raging emotions were ruling my body. On the same account, a parent of someone I know became over-protective and I had to stop telling her what was going on. Immediately after I was diagnosed I wanted to tell my parents and general practitioner, “I told you so!” My dad’s reaction was probably something to the tune of, “I knew something was wrong with you, but I didn’t know what.”