Bipolar is an illness of workarounds. As in, I constantly have to find ways to work around bipolar disorder. In fact, if there’s one coping skill that matters most when it comes to dealing with this serious mental illness, it’s being creative in finding alternate paths. So let’s talk about bipolar workarounds — how we can find them and how we can use them.

Bipolar Disorder Requires Workarounds

I once said on Instagram that people with bipolar disorder can generally get to where we want to go, but we may have to take an alternate route. (What I probably should have added is that the alternate route might be three times as long). So, what I mean when I say that is bipolar disorder is often a barrier, but we can work around that barrier to get to an endpoint of our choosing. It’s absolutely right to see bipolar as a brick wall standing in your way, but it’s also absolutely right to try and tunnel under that brick wall.

Why Do We Need to Work Around Bipolar?

Some people would say, “You shouldn’t let bipolar disorder stand in your way.”

These annoying people do not know what a serious mental illness is.

I’m here to tell you that bipolar disorder does stand in the way of many goals for many people. That’s totally normal. If it were any other serious, long-term, disabling, life-altering, possibly fatal illness, no one would blame you for seeing it as a barrier. Well, no one should blame you for admitting bipolar disorder is a barrier, too. Admitting that bipolar disorder needs to be worked around is the first step in actually doing it.

My University Bipolar Workaround

When I was young, there was no doubt that I would go to university and get a degree. If you had asked me, I would have told you there was no other path for me. Get into school; study hard; get perfect grades; get a degree. Done.

But I had no notion of bipolar disorder at the time and had no idea it would be standing in my way.

By the time I had finished my first year of university, though, it was clear my path was blocked. I wasn’t in school and getting perfect grades. I was having a harder and harder time just surviving.

But here’s where a bipolar workaround came in. I ended up doing the last seven semesters back-to-back with only three courses per semester. That was the least number of courses I could take and still get student loans. And even at that reduced course load, my grades were far from perfect. (I did have to work, too.) This was not the plan. This elongated my university career by a year and a half.

But the point is I got there. I worked around bipolar. By altering my course load and not holding myself to an unrealistic standard, I got to the endpoint of my choice: I got a bachelor’s in computer science.

My Career Bipolar Workaround

Not surprisingly, after I got my degree, I went into tech. Initially, I was a database developer, then a project manager, then an implementation specialist, then a program manager. By the time I was a program manager, it was for one of the biggest, most well-known tech companies in the world. It was everything I had wanted in a career.

But, bipolar.

In 2009, I was laid off. Thousands of us were. At the time this happened, I was going through massive stressors and was suicidally depressed. I couldn’t get another job either. There were too many people searching and too few jobs. So I went back to school temporarily and then launched a career in mental health.

At some point, it became clear that I could no longer work at a 40-hour-a-week, 9-to-5 job. It didn’t matter whether I could get another fancy tech job or not — I could never work one again anyway. This was devastating to me. It was the very opposite of so much that I considered myself to be.

After getting over the loss of the ability to work like most everyone else, I tried to focus on another bipolar workaround. In this case, it’s working for myself. In this case, it’s building my own platform and career. In this case, it’s writing, speaking, and staying out of an office. It was never what I imagined, but this bipolar workaround does, indeed, work for me.

More Bipolar Workarounds

There have been many more bipolar workarounds in my life. In fact, one might suggest my life is practically one big workaround. But I’ve learned that’s okay. We’re all working around something, after all. We’re all working around kids or pets or jobs or illnesses or personality traits or partners, etc. And while bipolar is a much bigger, more life-altering thing to work around, it is possible, in many cases, to do so.

When You Can’t Work Around Bipolar Disorder

I have to mention that working around bipolar isn’t always possible. This is an unfortunate reality about bipolar disorder. Sometimes, bipolar disorder is a brick wall, and the wall is simply too high, too deep, and too long to overcome, no matter how much you try. I don’t want to deny that. I have come up against bipolar brick walls that were impassible too. Nonetheless, creativity and persistence go a long way. Rethink your goals. Rethink your paths. Rethink what will truly make you happy and mentally stable. There are things out there that will make sense for you.