I know Bipolar has the second highest rate of co-morbid abuse of alcohol or addictions (ASPD is #1 I believe) but I have a couple questions for those who have experienced that aspect firsthand or can share similar thoughts. 

1. What have you abused or are currently abusing? Alcohol? Drugs? Other mood-altering behaviors? Mixtures of them or separate? 
2. Does the abuse coincide with any pattern in your moods? Such as mania driving you to drink/drug or possibly depression being something you are trying to temporarily escape from by abusing.
3. Do you believe that some of these substances or behaviors have had an unexpected effect on your personality or self-perception? Does it cloud your sense of bipolar or does it amplify it? Do you realize that the abuse or misuse is more so separate from your bipolar or do you think they are more of a hand in hand type of deal?
4. How has this abuse affected the timeline of your bipolar generally or bipolar diagnosis? How have others or specifically medical professionals treated you differently bc of that dynamic?

I hope to find some common ground and see if there is a possibility that we share patterns in how we cope with bipolar. This is all gonna be anecdotal in a sense and of course bipolar is a different battle for everyone. 

However, I think seeing how others have coped with it could help us see similar patterns in our own experiences. To those in recovery, you got this. To those actively using, I understand. 

Thanks y'all!