Commenter Dan at Mangan’s writes:
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a dozen years ago. It was not a misdiagnosis then. I was a mess with run ins with the police and mental institutions and a suicide attempt where my life had to be saved, while managing to graduate with honors from an Ivy league school.
Since then, I’ve had totally smooth sailing with stable marriage and four kids so far, a long tenure at a successful job, a nice house, large savings and so on, and some political activism while I tapered off medication almost completely.
Here are some lifestyle changes:
– Going from binge drinking to no drinking
– Going from massive caffeination to no caffeine.
– Going from lots of all-nighters to sleep every night
– Going from atheism to faith (if you are an atheist and not suicidal, you aren’t trying hard enough)
– Becoming conservative, not just politically but behaviorally
– Going from being the life of the party to being a bit square
When I changed, my friends said they wanted the old me back. Ha. The old me was mentally diseased and headed for a graveyard.
