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

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 &#x2F; depression.<p>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.<p>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?”<p>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.<p>I know this is unrelated to the company in the article, but maybe this post is useful to the discussion &#x2F; someone experiencing similar things.

Good. The stigma around bipolar is absolute hell for those of us who have it. Having rational and largely unemotional conversations about it with friends, family and co-workers is a near constant struggle, when even possible. Just mentioning it is enough to get responses like, &quot;Yeah, but everyone has a mental health disorder!&quot; to change the subject.<p>Hopefully the social stigma around even discussing mental health will go away in my lifetime, but I&#x27;m not holding my breath.

Wow! This thread (not the article) has got me questioning if I am in fact bipolar. Up until recently my diagnosis has been depression, but after reading the highs and lows others here experience, it looks more and more like what I in fact go through - and it makes sense, as I usually only see a therapist while depressed, and usually stop when I &quot;feel better&quot;, which usually only lasts a few weeks or months. That might explain why it&#x27;s never been caught.<p>Up until reading the comments here, I didn&#x27;t realize that when I feel &quot;normal&quot;&#x2F;not depressed, it might actually be a mania swing. I feel great, like happy for no reason, I work extended hours without noticing (14-16 hour days). I&#x27;m crazy hyper, and during these times are when I express my opinions (usually at work) and piss a lot of people off. These phases are also usually when I actually go out to meet people and&#x2F;or hookup with women. When I feel like this is usually when I quit a job without considering I have no savings, or how hard it might be to get a new job quick. I day dream about a life outside of software, living in the wild and by myself. I never put 2 and 2 together, but following these super productive weeks is usually a hard swing into depression - the kind where I can barely work at all, and really struggle to get out of bed, take care of my kids, eat, or shower. The downswing into depression usually lasts much longer than the upswing where I feel wonderful, or at least it feels that way. And the entire time I&#x27;m wishing I could feel good again like I did the week before when I had no problems working or taking care of myself.<p>Someone here mentioned a daily mood diary - that&#x27;s a brilliant idea! I&#x27;m going to start tracking my moods and see if I can graph a pattern out of them, or at least be able to tell when swings are coming so I can be prepared for them. I have really bad anxiety, and the constant back and forth really takes its toll on me, which deepens my depression to the point where I&#x27;ve thought about ending it all, but haven&#x27;t because I have children that need me - but every now and then for 1&#x2F;4 of a second a quick fantasy of dying will fly through my mind when I&#x27;m at a location where it&#x27;s actually possible to do so - for example hiking to the top of a mountain not but a few weeks ago, taking in the view, and for a brief moment had the urge to just jump off the side onto the rocks below. It scared the shit out of me!

FYI - I am Daniel&#x27;s co-founder, if you have any questions on Campfire or whatev&#x27;s.

I am glad to see this topic being approached openly on HN. I was diagnosed a few years ago after a series of life changing episodes which eventually lead to my hospitalization.<p>This has significantly effected my life. There are no easy solutions, and like many people I&#x27;ve found the treatment at times to be as bad as the symptoms.<p>I think the idea of campfire is a good one, and will probably give it a try. In the meantime, I&#x27;m always open for to discuss the topic if anyone wants to contact me directly.

I have a friend that is recently diagnosed with a bipolar disorder (he just had a hypomanic episode followed by a psychosis). So I think he should be hospitalized to learn more about his bipolar disorder. The problem is that if he wants to be hospitalized, he needs to take medication (which he is hesitant about). The care is really good and includes psychiatrists. I’d love to hear people’s opinion with a bipolar disorder on using medication. When do you recommend it and what do you recommend? What would you recommend my friend to do?

&gt; This Founder Lived with Bipolar for Years. Today His Company Tackles the Stigma<p>Click-bait title