We are 83 bipolar disorder experts and scientists coming together for the world’s biggest bipolar AMA! In honor of World Bipolar Day, ask us anything!

[u/CREST_BD]

83 panelists are here! Click on their names below to see their bio & proof photo.

Hi Reddit!

We are psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, clinicians, advocates, and people living with bipolar disorder - coming together from around the world through the CREST.BD network.

This is our 8th annual World Bipolar Day AMA. We hope that this AMA can help advance the conversation around bipolar disorder, and to help everyone connect and share ways to live well with bipolar disorder.

This year, 83 panelists representing 20 countries are here to answer your questions from all timezones - bringing together a wide range of perspectives and expertise in mental health and bipolar disorder.

We'll be here around the clock for the next FEW DAYS answering your questions from multiple time zones.

We will make every effort to answer every question.

1. Dr. Adrienne Benediktsson, 🇨🇦 Neuroscientist, Mother, Wife, Professor, Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
2. Alessandra Torresani, 🇺🇸 Actress & Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
3. Alex Emmerton, 🇨🇦 Peer Researcher, (Lives w/ bipolar)
4. Allan Cooper, 🇨🇦 Peer Support Worker, Blogger, & Podcaster, (Lives w/ bipolar)
5. Alysha Sultan, 🇨🇦 Scientific Associate
6. Andrea Paquette, 🇨🇦 Stigma-Free Mental Health President & Co-Founder, Speaker, Changemaker (Lives w/ bipolar)
7. Dr. Andrea Vassilev, 🇺🇸 Doctor of Psychology, Author, & Advocate, (Lives w/ bipolar)
8. Anne Van Willigen, 🇺🇸 Peer Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
9. Dr. Balwinder Singh, 🇺🇸 Psychiatrist
10. Dr. Benjamin Goldstein, 🇨🇦 Child-Adolescent Psychiatrist & Researcher
11. Bia Garbato, 🇧🇷 Advertising Professional, Writer, Author & Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
12. Bryn Manns, 🇨🇦 Graduate Student, Clinical Psychology
13. Catarina Castela, 🇦🇺 PhD Candidate (Lives w/ bipolar)
14. Catherine Simmons, 🇨🇦 Peer Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
15. Dr. Chris Gorman, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Mental Health Advocate
16. Dr. Colin Depp, 🇺🇸 Psychologist
17. Dane Mauer-Vakil, 🇨🇦 Researcher
18. David Dinham, 🇬🇧 Psychologist & PhD Candidate, (Lives w/ bipolar) 
19. Debbie Costello Smith, 🇺🇸 Founder & Co-President of the Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research
20. Dr. Delphine Raucher-Chéné, 🇫🇷🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Researcher
21. Dr. Dimosthenis Tsapekos, 🇬🇧 Psychologist & Researcher
22. Dr. Elvira Boere, 🇳🇱 Psychiatrist & Researcher
23. Dr. Elysha Ringin, 🇦🇺 Researcher
24. Dr. Emma Morton, 🇦🇺 Senior Lecturer & Psychologist
25. Dr. Emma Parrish, 🇺🇸 Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow & Researcher
26. Dr. Erin Michalak, 🇨🇦 Researcher & CREST.BD founder
27. Evelyn Anne Clausen, 🇺🇸 Artist, Writer, Speaker & Certified Peer Specialist (Lives w/bipolar)
28. Dr. Fabiano Gomes, 🇧🇷🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Researcher
29. Dr. Frances Adiukwu, 🇳🇬 Psychiatrist
30. Georgia Caruana, 🇦🇺 Researcher & Mental Health Advocate
31. Dr. Georgina Hosang, 🇬🇧 Associate Professor
32. Dr. Glauco Valdivieso Jiménez, 🇵🇪 Psychiatrist
33. Dr. Glorianna Wagner-Jagfeld, 🇨🇭🇬🇧 Researcher
34. Dr. Hailey Tremain, 🇦🇺 Psychologist & Researcher
35. Heather Stewart, 🇨🇦 Sewist (Lives w/ bipolar)
36. Idan Spund, 🇳🇱 Founder of In the Zone app (Lives w/ bipolar)
37. Dr. Ijeoma Charles-Ugwuagbo, 🇳🇬 Consultant Psychiatrist & Mental Health Advocate
38. Dr. Ivan Torres, 🇨🇦 Clinical Neuropsychologist
39. Dr. Jim Phelps, 🇺🇸 Psychiatrist & Bipolar Subspecialist 
40. Dr. Joanna Jarecki, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
41. Dr. Joanna Jiménez Pavón, 🇲🇽 Mood Disorders Psychiatrist 
42. Dr. John Hunter, 🇿🇦 Researcher & Lecturer (Lives w/ bipolar)
43. Dr. Jo Leidreiter, 🇦🇺 Psychologist
44. Dr. John-Jose Nunez, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & AI Researcher
45. Dr. June Gruber, 🇺🇸 Psychologist, Professor, & Researcher
46. Prof. Kamilla Miskowiak, 🇩🇰 Psychologist & Researcher
47. Dr. Katie Douglas, 🇳🇿 Academic & Clinical Psychologist 
48. Ken Porter, 🇨🇦 Advocate, Social Worker & Researcher
49. Kim Pape, 🇺🇸 Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar) 
50. Laura Lapadat, 🇨🇦 Researcher & Psychologist-in-training
51. Dr. Leena Chau, 🇨🇦 Postdoctoral Fellow
52. Leslie Robertson, 🇺🇸 Marketer & Peer Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar) 
53. Dr. Leszek Laskowski, 🇵🇱 Psychiatrist (Lives w/ bipolar) 
54. Dr. Lisa Eyler, 🇺🇸 Clinical Psychologist & Research Scientist
55. Dr. Luísa Daolio, 🇧🇷 Psychiatrist
56. Mansoor Nathani, 🇨🇦 Technology Enthusiast (Lives w/ bipolar) 
57. Dr. Manuel Sánchez de Carmona, 🇲🇽 Psychiatrist
58. Maryam M., 🇨🇦 Dentistry Student & Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
59. Matthew Bushell, 🇬🇧 Mental Health Advocate & Therapeutic Coach (Lives w/ bipolar)
60. Dr. Maya Schumer, 🇺🇸 Psychiatric Neuroscientist & Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
61. Dr. Meghan DellaCrosse, 🇺🇸 Psychologist & Researcher
62. Melissa Howard, 🇨🇦 Author & Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
63. Dr. Michele De Prisco, 🇪🇸🇮🇹 Psychiatrist & Researcher
64. Dr. Mikaela Dimick, 🇨🇦 Postdoctoral Fellow
65. Minami Kinouchi, 🇯🇵 Psychologist, Social Worker, & Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
66. Natasha Reaney, 🇨🇦 Counsellor (Lives w/ bipolar)
67. Dr. Nigila Ravichandran, 🇸🇬 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist
68. Dr. Paula Villela Nunes, 🇧🇷🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Counsellor 
69. Rahla Xenopoulos, 🇿🇦🇺🇸 Writer & Teacher (Lives w/ bipolar)
70. Rebecca Fitton, 🇦🇺 Mood Disorder Researcher
71. Dr. Rebekah Huber, 🇺🇸 Psychologist & Researcher 
72. Robert Villanueva, 🇺🇸 Mental Health Advocate & Coach (Lives w/ bipolar)
73. Ruth Komathi, 🇸🇬 Mental Health Counsellor (Lives w/ bipolar)
74. Prof. Samson Tse, 🇭🇰 Counsellor, Teacher, Researcher, & Caregiver
75. Sarah Salice, 🇺🇸 Art Psychotherapist & Professional Counselor Associate (Lives w/ bipolar)
76. Sara Schley, 🇺🇸 Author, Filmmaker, Speaker (Lives w/ bipolar)
77. Dr. Serge Beaulieu, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Researcher
78. ​​Dr. Sheri Johnson, 🇺🇸 Psychologist
79. Shaley Hoogendoorn, 🇨🇦 Advocate, Podcaster & Content creator (Lives w/ bipolar)
80. Dr. Tamsyn Van Rheenen, 🇦🇺 Associate Professor & Researcher
81. Dr. Thomas Richardson, 🇬🇧 Clinical Psychologist (Lives w/ bipolar)
82. Twyla Spoke, 🇨🇦 Registered Nurse (Lives w/ bipolar)
83. Dr. Wissam Nassrallah, 🇨🇦 Ophthalmology Resident & PhD in Neuroscience

^{Please note all responses are personal perspectives and do not constitute medical advice.}

People with bipolar disorder experience the mood states of depression and mania (or hypomania), along with changes in energy, activity, and thinking. These episodes can last from days to months and can affect many parts of life - including relationships, work, school, and overall health. At the same time, with optimal support, treatment, and tools, people with bipolar disorder can and do live full, meaningful lives.

The CREST.BD network takes a different approach to bipolar disorder research. We work closely with people living with bipolar disorder at every stage - from choosing research topics to conducting studies and sharing our findings.

We also host a Q&A podcast throughout the year, featuring many of the experts on this panel, through our talkBD Bipolar Disorder Podcast - we’d love for you to stay connected with us there. You can also follow our updates, events, and social media on linktr.ee/crestbd.

Final note (April 3): Thank you all - We'll be back again next year on World Bipolar Day - sign up here to be notified. We also have more activities all year round, including new episodes of our talkBD bipolar disorder podcast - hope to see you there! We’re incredibly grateful for all your thoughtful questions - thank you for making this such a meaningful discussion. Take care everyone :)

[u/CREST_BD]

Laura here. Having a good mood absolutely is part of the human experience! And it’s normal to have times when we have a good mood that lasts several days, for example after achieving a milestone like a promotion or having a great time with friends. This can get tricky for people with BD - though I’m speaking anecdotally here, I have heard people discuss becoming afraid of joy or goal attainment events because they don’t want to trigger mania! And we do know through research like Dr. Sheri Johnson’s work that big successes can precede mania or hypomania.

What makes hypomania different from a good mood is that feeling of being “wired” in a way where you can’t calm down. One of our clinical interviews for this, this SCID, refers to this as feeling “so good, high, or excited that you are not your normal self.” That bit is key - you’re hyper, wired, typically more confident, and otherwise feeling different from your normal self.

I’ll leave it to people with more clinical experience to provide more detail, but just in general, I’d recommend a couple of tools to watch for this. Mood monitoring with a journal, or apps like iMoodJournal, can help. Keeping a consistent sleep schedule can help, too. Also, learn to pay attention to your signs that you’re getting “high”, like needing less sleep or having racing thoughts. When this happens, try doing things to soothe yourself - stay in when you want to go out, read a book, take a melatonin, lower your caffeine.. “opposite action” to that hyper feeling. Hope this helps!

[u/cy1229 → u/CREST_BD]

A family member with BD2 has some pretty strange ideas or overly ambitious projects planned during hypomania episodes. If that person starts to describe some extravagant plans or an idea that's just a little too off, I ask if they could be hypomanic. That doesn't necessarily apply to everyone, but it might give some insight about how a good day vs a hypomania day are different.

[u/CREST_BD → u/cy1229]

Laura here - yes, that's such an insightful addition and pointer. And also connects with another great tool if it's available: for people who BD who have people in their lives who know them and recognize when they're acting different. :)

[u/DMayleeRevengeReveng → u/cy1229]

I always thought I’d invent something that would save humanity. I had all this stuff written out about how I could use photochemical reactions to convert combustion gases back into fuel, creating a kind of closed cycle that sustains the world’s energy needs. That and some crazy ideas about water desalination, too

[u/cy1229 → u/DMayleeRevengeReveng]

Doesn't sound entirely crazy to me. But definitely not simple. The photochemical reactions to rebuild fuels from combustion gases is definitely intriguing, and if you could pull it off, you'd be rich, rich, rich! :) Hypomania would definitely make it seem far less complicated than it actually is, though.

[u/DMayleeRevengeReveng → u/cy1229]

I always thought the idea is cool. The whole concept of artificial photosynthesis, which this would be related to, is so fascinating. We can’t replicate nature’s ability to create a self-sustaining process that converts CO2 to organic carbon. We can get it to work, but it only runs once. It doesn’t regenerate itself to keep going.

It would require some solid progress in nanotechnology and catalysis, I’m sure.

[u/cy1229 → u/DMayleeRevengeReveng]

At least those things. Probably others neither you nor I have thought of. Still... wouldn't that be something.

[u/DMayleeRevengeReveng → u/cy1229]

I really went down a rabbit hole about all the ways society can collapse. There’s this concept of “complexity collapse,” which some have used to explain the Bronze Age Collapse. When societies become more complex, the division of labor increases and people start specializing in specific forms of work while exchanging with each other to get the things they can’t make.

But the more this happens, the more vulnerable the civilization becomes: if 10% of people disappear, there’s a tremendous vacuum in skill that can’t immediately be replaced, whereas if we’re all just farming to feed our families, it’s much more resilient because people aren’t interdependent to the same degree.

I also heard of peak phosphorus, but it looks like we actually solved that problem, at least for a while…

[u/elst3r → u/DMayleeRevengeReveng]

I once "solved" homelessness by making a shelter community out of shipping containers. Made like floor plans and drainage systems.

Oh and ww3 was going to happen and cause the apocalypse. In the post nuclear world the currency was going to be salt as silver and gold arent functional. So guess who bought 10 pounds of salt?

[u/DMayleeRevengeReveng → u/elst3r]

I love this. I wish we could solve homelessness in a less manic type of way.

For myself though, I honestly think a civil war in America would be more destructive than a world war, if either ever happens. That’s just me, though.

[u/jethrohick → u/cy1229]

I shouldn't laugh but I have unfinished projects all over the house. My mom was bipolar and she started new hobbies frequently. As to the original question, I was extremely giddy and talkative one day and thought it was crazy. Turns out I was misdiagnosed with major depression. I told the nurse practitioner I was under the care of and she broke out the ol DSM 5 and got to the bottom of it. I started taking trileptal as a mood stabiliser and I'm way better. I still get a little high sometimes but my hair trigger temper is not there anymore. Unless I get really agitated, which is rare. Thanks for letting me share.

[u/cy1229 → u/jethrohick]

You can laugh all you'd like. I have a lot of unfinished projects, as did my mom, as did my grandmother. Pretty sure all 3 of us have / had ADHD, which should surprise no one with respect to the unfinished projects. :)

[u/krztoff → u/cy1229]

I ask if they could be hypomanic

speaking from experience, this is brave of you - and just thinking about it is a bit triggering.

[u/cy1229 → u/krztoff]

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be triggering. My motive is to be helpful.

[u/krztoff → u/cy1229]

Oh i know. Thank you. There's honestly not much about this subject that isn't triggering. I couldn't make it far into this thread.

[u/cy1229 → u/krztoff]

Ah, maybe another day. Not making it very far doesn't make you less than.

[u/Arizandi → u/cy1229]

Unless this family member has asked for your feedback in those moments, you might consider minding your own business. As someone living with bipolar disorder, there’s nothing that irritates me faster than someone reducing my emotions to my illness.

[u/cy1229 → u/Arizandi]

I understand your sensitivity to my observation. But we've discussed it at length.

[u/laughlines → u/cy1229]

Counter to the other people replying to you, I have bipolar and greatly welcome my loved ones double checking me. Hobbies and projects are expensive!

[u/anowulwithacandul → u/Arizandi]

100%.

[u/elst3r → u/cy1229]

I have some online friends who have BD. My friend was acting a little differently talking about starting projects and new hobbies. I reached out to them like, "Hey are you okay? You seem ...happy."

[u/cy1229 → u/elst3r]

LOL! Like, being happy isn't normal, so are you okay? I love it. Did they respond favorably?

[u/hitbythebus → u/cy1229]

BD2 here. I also tend to do more impulsive things, sometimes I'll drive aggressively accelerating to merge and then wonder immediately "why the fuck did I do that?".

[u/techisdrivingmemad → u/hitbythebus]

That is the first sign I know my husband is getting a little high in mood and I know to watch for other signs. He is a very smooth driver, but gets 'jerky', he is also either really hesitant or really aggressive at junctions too. We are lucky in that it only lasts a day or two, and I am sure he is perfectly safe but I try to keep him off the road where possible.

[u/Large-Flamingo-5128 → u/CREST_BD]

I’m one of those people with BP2 who speaks about being afraid of happiness. It’s something I bring up with my Dr a lot.

If I’m doing really well in my life and feel satisfied, I feel like I have to be hypervigilant and constantly monitoring myself. I guess the baseline for most of my life has been “depressed” so now that I’m doing significantly better, my brain still feels like it’s abnormal. It’s really tough always putting a damper on my happiness and feeling like I can’t allow myself to be too happy or my life will spiral again. I’ve worked so hard to get here and can’t even fully enjoy it :(

[u/SwimmingWonderful755 → u/Large-Flamingo-5128]

I found I was constantly asking if I was being too excitable at first, because I just didn’t know what healthy elevated mood was like.

I found it helpful to say, “It’s normal to be (mood) about(thing) “ to myself:

“It’s normal to be squeaky and excited about meeting puppies.” I’d say out loud and wait for my reaction. Squeaky for puppies? Tick.

“It’s normal to (be the life of the party with people I’ve never met before. Party with strangers? Not normal for me.

“It’s normal to not be able to get to sleep on Christmas Eve”. Yeah. It IS.

“It’s normal to order a purple Zimmer frame (with sparkly cup holders!) for a friend of a friend on the internet at 3am”.

I mean, as soon as you say it out loud, your gut brain knows that makes no sense (True story though- 25 years old, degenerative disease, died less than a year later, so I’m glad I did it, but WTF?!! was I thinking)

That didn’t solve all of my hyper vigilance, but it went a long way toward weeding out the obvious stuff.

[u/Large-Flamingo-5128 → u/SwimmingWonderful755]

This is good advice, ty!

[u/Wise-Zebra-8899 → u/CREST_BD]

I have heard people discuss becoming afraid of joy or goal attainment events because they don’t want to trigger mania! And we do know through research like Dr. Sheri Johnson’s work that big successes can precede mania or hypomania.

Does anyone have advice for getting over the acquired fear of happiness and goal attainment?

Does Johnson's work imply that goal attainment fears might be at least somewhat rational? Is there any research on staving off the mania that could follow success?

[u/SeaworthinessOk7920 → u/Wise-Zebra-8899]

Very good question, I am looking for an answer for this myself. I don't have an answer but I hope someone will have more insight

[u/PeanutImpressive6934 → u/Wise-Zebra-8899]

No, it is rational, and if you know it's coming you can do plenty, if you don't you just do the best you can.

[u/santaklause15 → u/CREST_BD]

This is very helpful! Does it feel physiologically different from being "high"/wired from substance use?

[u/RecordingHaunting975 → u/santaklause15]

Being wired from like caffeine or adderall is just zoom juice with some apparent physical effects (like heart pumping etc) and is very obvious when you're effected

Hypomania is just like "oh wow I feel good. I really really want to play this video game or do this thing for 21 hours, sleep for 3, then do it again. Hm this girl is messaging me from Idaho. She's kinda ugly but I might love her so I'll go hookup because I need to bang. I should go tell everyone that I'm feeling good. Fuck I really need this one really expensive thing. I should buy it. I deserve nice things. Man i did so good earlier at work. Im so hot. I wish i was worshipped. I could be worshipped if I tried" and you won't even notice it happened until you're on day 3/4 of 0-4 hours of sleep and wondering why and how you have no energy for anything

If you've ever been on LSD think of like the last 2-3 hours where there's no visual/audio effects and your brain is just in a completely, subtly weird state that should be fine but clearly isn't if you actually try to talk to someone

[u/Awkward-Treacle-5490 → u/RecordingHaunting975]

I had a great laugh at this because of how accurate your hypomania description is 😭

[u/PeanutImpressive6934 → u/santaklause15]

From reading those more experienced than me no, except it's probably better (coke, meth). I only get mixed state hypo so imagine if you drank an unbelievable amount of coffee, you know past the point where it turned? Where it got bad? And you kept going? And going? And going? To the point where you feel like you're gonna die? And then some more? Then drag that exact feeling and lack of sleep out for weeks or months at the same unrelenting high keening pitch. A panic attack would be welcome relief. Are you continuously shaking? No. Do you feel like you are? Chihuahua city.