Can you have bipolar for life without treatment

I am not sure if this is the correct forum or not. Sorry if this is incorrect.

My history:
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and thought disorder. From the ages of 13-18 i took medication, went to therapy, went to a special school (6-11 class), etc. I was hospitalized a few times for suicide attempts. I fought it tooth and nail the entire time, sometimes refusing to take my medication. When i turned 18, i moved out of my parents house, and stopped treatment 100%. Stopped going to therapy, stopped medication, stopped everything.

Current:
Now i am 28 years old. I havent had meds or therapy in 10 years. I dont believe i had any episodes of depression/manic, but i am not really sure. I have only once thought of suicide since stopping treament. That was 5 years ago, when my daughters mother left me. I got over it and moved on. Other than that though i havent really had any problems regarding bipolar. If i am ever asked, i now say i do not have a mental disease.
I do have sleep problems, but that is more of gaming during all nights hours, and my sleep schedule changes constantly. I havent worked in 4 years. I live off food stamps and housing help. I switched jobs every couple of months, and then just stopped trying. I am not sure if this is just laziness or bipolar? About 5 years ago i attempted to get SSI, but was denied because i didnt end up going to the court hearing to fight for SSI. I havent felt like re-applying because the process is such a pain...and takes forever. Plus i think i have to have treatment going to get SSI.

I am just wondering, can bipolar disappear over your lifetime? Maybe i am just kidding myself over these years, and its hiding and waiting? Maybe i was never bipolar and misdiagnosed because i have a family history of bipolar?

Thanks in advance for any input you folks might give me.

Hello, I think you can be without treatment, but your right if you want ssi its best to go for treatment. I read up about ssi on this forum *mod edit*. I couldn't hold a job myself for long. I'm on ssi now. not like it is a fortune but at least i'm not on the street. I think its part of your bipolar playing in with the job. Good Luck with whatever you do, If you go on that forum u might read something helpful and can ask questions about ssi. I never really wanted to take medication, the ability I take takes away my manic states, i'm much more calmer, and don't speak as quickly or have fits of pleasure.

Maybe you have a mild form of BP. And i have never heard of BP going away ever as there is no cure.
Its not like a broke arm it heals over time. Just managing it with meds and therapy to help you learn to deal with it in a better way

From what I understand from my docs, BP is forever. It doesn't ever go away. You can have mild BP, go years without episodes, etc but it never just disappears.

The only times I have gone longer than 3 months between episodes and also have each episode last 3 months at a time is when I am on meds. If I am not on them, cycles come and go way too much and way too intense for me,

As for SSI, I do not have any experience with that at present but that might be changing soon. I will look for info on that in the other thread you mention.

If you are asking can one go untreated for bipolar for a lifetime I would say the answer is yes.
If you are asking if it can go into a remission, if you will, I would say that it is possible.
Disappear? I doubt it.
Sounds to me like you are just living through it all. Maybe like the others suggested it is mild, maybe BP is the wrong diagnosis. Do YOU think you are just lazy? Going to the extreme of applying for SSI seems indicative of something more than just laziness.

My two cents.
By the way, I do have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder officially but I prefer to call myself philosophically challenged rather than mentally ill. I have a really hard time with that label.

I went for many years with no medications, but it was a hell of a ride.

I won't take antipsychotics ever again, even though my bp is pretty severe. I love my blazing, vivid imagination and won't give it up for anything. I've found that I can just about deal with it by a combination of Lamictal and Remeron, tricking myself into harmless activities (art, especially), not having a credit card, having understanding neighbours, recognizing when the situation is bad and repeating the mantra: "just do nothing, just do nothing and everything will be okay."

I have been able to mostly handle the dreaded Bipolar Rage by recognizing it starting and immediately exiting the situation that is causing it until it goes away. It actually goes away quickly as long as you don't let it feed on itself.

Remember that it's just your moods that are haywire: your neocortex is working just fine, and you can use its ability to strategize and outwit your primal, overpowering emotions and keep them from doing serious damage to your life. At least, that's how I've done it.

Don't feel lazy. The depression gets you twice: first, by preventing you from doing anything, and second, by making you feel guilty about it.

So you want to know if there's a way to cope with the unbalanced circadian rythm and if there's a way to improve your focus in work well I can see two avenues adding to your diet could achieve
For concentration
You need to look at your actylcholine levels and the essential fatty acids
If you look for food sources of archidonic acid and high dha omega 3 that will help the focus
If you look maybe to a supplement like alpha GPC or a herb like bacopa monnieri to improve the actylcholine levels.

As for the circadian rythm you need to consider herbs that help you sleep and foods that matabolise your food well maybe even a tea that improves your youthel like ability to get past the stress and sleep as much as your body needs.
Well obviously there are herbs on the market advertised a lot for getting a good sleep generally these help but don't help the stress causing insomnia.
Silver needle white tea can make you feel tired and restful when your body needs sleep.
Then there's 5htp for the serotonin balance to better develop the circadium rythm.
To deal with the metabolism issue you might want to take baobab along after some of your meals this will stop digestive issues causing subtle but effective stress on your body.

With this understanding you might be able to get some focus maybe enough to focus on your own niche in for working on your own thing.

People survived for thousands of years without medication, because there wasn't any. It's a very hard row to hoe, but I think it can be done.

sixprime wrote:People survived for thousands of years without medication, because there wasn't any. It's a very hard row to hoe, but I think it can be done.

This would only be true with an assumption that in those thousands of years lifestyle and average life span haven't changed though. I must say that if I actually were a Viking, manias would be way more fun, even though I probably would have been in Valhalla by now.

Oliveira wrote:

sixprime wrote:People survived for thousands of years without medication, because there wasn't any. It's a very hard row to hoe, but I think it can be done.

This would only be true with an assumption that in those thousands of years lifestyle and average life span haven't changed though. I must say that if I actually were a Viking, manias would be way more fun, even though I probably would have been in Valhalla by now.

Yes, that kind of behaviour isn't really tolerated anymore. I'm sure it had positive adaptive value in the past. I can easily imagine myself as the anonymous painter, sitting in the back of the cave in the dark and desperately drawing aurochs in ocher on the walls, so the visions would stop torturing me. Or, like you, a bezerker who will lead your tribe to glorious victory in battle, or die a glorious death trying.

Nowadays, they stamp out any sign of psychosis like Smokey the Bear, and their rigid laws have no place for it but cages.