I had my first episode at 12 and at 13 saw my first psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with combat fatigue. How one gets combat fatigue at 13 I don't know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had numerous episodes between the ages of 13 and 20. I was hospitalized at 16, then again at 18 when I was away at college.
Due to the fact I did not feel like being hospitalized again at 18, they sent the police department to persuade me. A "scuffle" ensued, and nine of the policemen were incapacitated. It was a small department and they were annoyed. I spent four months in maximum security, in what can only be charitably described as a snake pit. That was the bad news. The good news was that my fellow "patients" were much more frightened of me than I was of them. I then spent another 20 months in another state hospital system. This was in 1970.
I was one of the first patients in the US to be put on lithium. I walked out of the hospital about 3 months after I was put on it and I never looked back. I went back to college, got a BA and two Master's degrees. I became an urban planner, then the youngest planning director in the United States at 26. Five years later I was in Saudi Arabia as a consultant to the Crown Prince on a small project. After it ended, I left the field of urban planning and entered the field of information technology. I also got married during this period.
On my doctor's advice, I quit taking lithium after the first year. I was to stay stable and unmedicated for 20 years. I built a successful career in information technology. The in 1990, I had another episode. I was hospitalized for three weeks, this time in a private hospital, and put back on lithium. I went back to work two weeks after returning to the hospital, reworked my career, and became eventually a network engineer. My first wife left me in 1995. I managed to stay stable and remarried in 1999. In 2000, despite being on lithium and taking my medication as directed, the mania burned through the lithium and I became ill again. Another altercation with the police ensued. This time they unleashed a police dog. I felt bad about the dog.
I was released from the hospital about two weeks later and decided to take the necessary time to recover. I went back to work part time three weeks later. I returned to work full time almost two years later. I also switched from consulting to training at this point, which I had already started to do before I became ill. I discovered various bipolar message boards and wrote extensively for one of them. I discovered chat on About.com about the same time. I later became a moderator and I have been moderating for quite a while now. I am not in the room as much as I have been because I am working 60 hours a week. I am still teaching and I have two small consulting companies as well.
I have always believed that either you manage the illness or it manages you. Mostly I succeed in this ...
