Living with any mental illness is hard, but living with Bipolar Disorder is absolute hell. Bipolar Disorder has two phases, mania, and depression. A person will switch between these phases in either minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months. It's so hard going through a manic phase where I'm happy, energetic, and productive into a depressive episode.

During a depressive episode getting out of bed, showering, laundry, cooking, completing school assignments, and working are often the hardest tasks. Some days I will sleep for over twelve hours because I am exhausted for no reason. It also makes me feel guilty that I cannot complete basic daily tasks without ease.

Being Bipolar also heightens my anxiety, and makes my OCD to be a nuisance. I get anxiety during manic phases because I cannot sleep, and then I have more anxiety over having anxiety over not being able to sleep.

My anxiety is at times so bad that it causes me to enter a depressive episode because I overthink, and I create every worst outcome of any situation that may happen to me. Mania also causes me to have touch sensitive OCD, and usually, any sensation caused by things touching my skin causes me to have to move around a lot because I am never comfortable.

Since being diagnosed I have learned to take everything one day at a time, and to set goals that are easily attainable. I make sure I take care of myself every day by showering, eating, and getting out of the house.

I use so many positive coping strategies such as deep breathing, coloring, taking walks, and reading. I also have to make sure I do one task at a time so that I do not get stressed out, anxious, or suffer from sensory overload. I learned that taking my medication every day, and going to therapy is something I actively need to do in order to keep myself on a straight path.

I learned that not every day is easy, but I will have better days, and I have people who will always be there for me when I need them.