Desperation is one of the effects of bipolar disorder. In fact, desperation is even one of the effects of bipolar disorder treatment (Bipolar Treatment Fatigue). So many of us with bipolar disorder have felt desperate at one or more points in time; bipolar disorder is even making some of us feel desperate right now.

Bipolar Disorder Can Make Us Desperate

When you’re chronically ill, when you’re gravely ill, you’re often desperate. The symptoms of bipolar disorder (Severe Agitation — Bipolar Symptom of Side Effect?) lead to desperation. If you didn’t know why you kept losing jobs, killing relationships and wanting to end your life (Living with Wanting to Be Dead), you’d be desperate, too. Looking around and seeing how easy life is for everyone else and yet knowing how hard it is for you makes a person desperate.

Because, of course, if our lives weren’t ruined or we weren’t in severe pain (Bipolar: No Amount of Pain Can Kill You — Power Over Suicide), we wouldn’t be desperate enough to seek out psychiatric treatment, now would we?

Bipolar Disorder Treatment Can Make Us Desperate, Too

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that treatment is bad, and it’s not that you wouldn’t be desperate, necessarily, anyway, but I think desperation is an effect that many people have found through bipolar disorder treatment.

This is because it’s virtually never the case that treatment is easy or even a straight line. It often takes years to find a bipolar disorder treatment that really works for a person. And during that time, desperation is totally normal. I can’t tell you the number of times I thought I’d never find a useful treatment. I can’t tell you the number of times death (The Difference Between Being Suicidal and Wanting to Die) seemed like the right, and only, option. I can’t tell you the number of tears I have cried begging for anything to work even a little bit. Desperation wasn’t nearly a big enough word for me during those times.

Having bipolar disorder could make anyone desperate -- pain is like that. If bipolar is making you desperate, here's what you need to know.Not only that, but bipolar disorder treatment has a habit of not working after a period of time. And if you’ve spent years trying to find a treatment only to have it stop working, “desperate” can easily be the word that describes you best.

And then there are the side effects. It’s also pretty natural to have desperation be a bipolar disorder treatment effect when your everyday is dizzy, clumsy, scattered and painful thanks to bipolar disorder medication side effects.

Effects of Desperation Due to Bipolar Disorder

And during these times of desperation, you feel like you would literally do anything to make the suffering stop. I get this. I know it only too well. I have done totally ridiculous things just in the irrational hope that somehow it would make me feel better. (Carrot juice, kudzu root and an aura cleansing anyone?)

Here’s a video on why the driving force of desperation is so dangerous:

Here’s What You Need to Know If Bipolar Disorder Is Making You Desperate

So what I want you to know is this: desperation is normal in a serious mental illness situation. It just is. I know it would be nice if this wasn’t the case, but it is. So if you feel desperate, know that you’re perfectly normal.

Also know that most of us have been soul-scrapingly desperate and, yet, have come out the other side. I know when you’re in the bleak, seemingly-infinite hole that is desperation, it seems like there is no “other side.” I know that. But there is. I would never do the things today that desperation led me to do in the past. It’s not that my life is super-cheery, it’s just that pointed desperation has left the building.

And I know that desperation will be temporary for you too (Why Should I Continue to Fight the Pain of Depression?). I know it will feel eternal, but I also know that it won’t really be eternal. I hate to tell you that you just have to ride it out, but you just have to ride it out. But know that while you’re doing so, there will be an end. It might not be tomorrow, but an end is out there. I found it. I know you will too.