I’ve made it to my senior year of college, and survived it with bipolar I disorder. College left me with some emotional battle scars, but it also brought with them some truly beautiful moments that I experienced in spite of my illness.

We’ve all heard that in order to maintain one’s mental health in college, the key is to sleep well, stick to a routine, seek professional counseling or take medications consistently, etc. These are all incredibly important and they should not be ignored, as they are crucial to your success in school. If you’re not sure whether or not you even have bipolar disorder, understand that it is not something that you can self-diagnose -- professional help is urgently needed. But if you’ve been diagnosed and you’ve taken all of the necessary steps recommended by doctors, you’ll know that there are still going to be days when nothing feels right. Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve learned a few things that helped me tremendously (in conjunction with medication and therapy, of course), and unorthodox as they may be, doing them made the process of managing my Bipolar I disorder throughout college much more bearable and ultimately rewarding.

1. Understand that when you’re bipolar, being successful in college does not mean that you have to "thrive" or go above and beyond.

Getting out of bed and going to class is an accomplishment. Moving away from your family and into a space with unfamiliar people is an accomplishment. Sticking it out through days of depression is an accomplishment. While striving for excellence is fine and dandy, you can’t hold yourself to higher expectations than you can handle. The time will come when you can manage a higher degree of stress and responsibility, but for now, remember that some days, just getting to a point where you feel okay will be hard and it’s OK to just feel OK.

2. Channel your manic days into intense study days.

There will be days when regardless of how relentlessly you try, you will not be able to make yourself work. Just as quickly as you find yourself feeling depressed and unmotivated, you’ll find yourself in a state of full blown energetic mania when you feel the need to run a marathon or clean your entire building. Those are the days you should do homework. Resist the urge to bake 50 cakes or go on a joyride down the interstate, and instead, use that unbridled emotion to attack your homework as aggressively as your manic self possibly can. This process does not come naturally whatsoever. But training yourself to use your schoolwork as a positive outlet for your emotions will not only prevent you from spiraling downward, but give value and meaning to a phase of your illness that could otherwise tear you down.

3. Look for compassionate and loving friends, not bipolar friends.

That is NOT to say that being with people who have your illness isn’t fantastic - it’s extremely healing to find friends who have felt what you are feeling. But you cannot depend on this, as many of the people in your classes, dorm, etc. have not experienced life the way that you have. My best friend once told me that comparing our struggles to the struggles of others is one of the worst ways to hinder meaningful connections- it doesn’t matter whose problems are worse, the point is that we all have problems. Surround yourself with compassionate people, but do not expect those people to understand how you feel, just as you won’t understand how they feel. Realistically, you won’t be able to just hunt down a bipolar person every time you need support, (and aside from suffering from the same illness, you still may have very little in common with that person, as bipolar disorder is only a part of who you are). So don’t cheat yourself out of meaningful friendships with kind and loving people just because they cannot empathize with you. Friends don’t always have to understand in order to care and to help.

4. Go places. Different places.

Get out of your apartment/dorm and into the sun. Take a mini road trip when life is just too much. Change your routine. Get out of the claustrophobic box that mental illness creates and into the woods. Remember that the world is full of beautiful places and beautiful people, and on days when you feel like you don’t know what is real anymore, you owe it to yourself to take time to go experience them.

Be thankful for your friends, family and for being alive. You're going to have the ride of a lifetime, so don't panic when you crash every now and then (or often). It's all just a reminder that you're a whole, strong, capable person. Ya feel?

Oh, and read some Steinbeck every now and then:

“And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more.”

“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.”

“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.”

- John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"