I bought a notebook for mood charting. Yay. I keep track of Mania, depression, stress, suicide thoughts, anger, sleep, and the moon cycle (if you know what I mean) on a scale of 1 to 10, except the last two. Sleep is good, ok, poor, ect. The other is dates.

A "friend" at school said something the other day that sort of made me angry. She said untreated bipolar can turn into schizophrenia. I asked my therapist, this is not true. Bipolar is a mood disorder, it comes and goes. Schiz is not, it happens all the time and is a completely different disorder. However, bipolar can have psychotic symptoms, so it could appear like other issues, but it is not. Then she said every crazy person should be locked up. Excuse me, I have bipolar and I generally function just fine, thank you. Just because person A has diabetes and takes insulin does not mean every diabetic has to have insulin shoots. Just because your mom is a crazy psycho, does not mean I am. I'm pretty sure a lot of people in the music, art, and theatre department have stress or mood related problems. We're creative and crazy and just plain weird. There are two people, myself included in the music department that have bipolar and this "friend" is dumb enough to say this stuff?

I wish people would ask. I don't mind explaining what bipolar disorder really is and really is not. I am a human being, not a disease. I have trouble handling stress, I sometimes have high moments, and a lot of times have low moments without reason. Yes, sometimes I have mood swings, but that doesn't define me. I am a creative, artistic free spirit, not bipolar disorder.