I'm grateful to have been raised in a household where violence was taught to never be in any equation. After years of fighting against the urge to be physical in my manic phases, I can definitively say that whatever was holding me back was doing the right thing.

I've come close to hitting the people close to me because of some nonsensical argument I've crafted in my bullheaded brain, and every time it subsides is a moment I add to the long list of things never to trust myself with.

To this day, most people I have met will see me as the quietest, shyest person. It's really only my partner, who has observed my mood for years, who has seen me beyond that. If I had acted on those violent impulses before I went on medication, everyone's last impression of me would be a violent, crazy, unhinged maniac.

I have read horror stories of people who have been to jail because of one incident, and how they lost their job because of it, people who lost custody of their child because of that one time they acted on an impulse. And most of all, people losing the respect of their family and the community around them.

People with bipolar disorder are not inherently violent. However, because the prevalence of bipolar disorder in the world is only ~1%, I think it only takes one single anecdote about knowing someone with bipolar who did this or that to change people's perception of it in a social circle.