I just saw a post on here that gave some people hope about this bipolar thing. I guess I'll just share a little bit of my story. I was hospitalized in 2019 during my senior year of college. I was a top tier student before everything came crashing down at the pinnacle of a very severe manic episode.

The doctors were saying that I had schizophrenia and that I would probably be there for a long time with intense psychosis. I was so out of mind. It was like a living nightmare. They drugged me up with some APs and who knows what else. I barely got my hands on reality and I immediately begged my mom to gmtfo. The doctors all told her that it was a terrible idea and that I was in an unpredictable state. As soon as I got back home I begged her to take me back to campus. Everyone told me to drop out of school and that if I kept going then I would be right back in the hospital. I refused to listen and I ended up getting a ride back to school. 


I started going back to class even while I was in psychosis. It was a huge mess but I did the best I could. I was also a TA at the same time and I worked that job as well but I gave it up because I could hardly hold a conversation. I crawled my way out of school with disability accommodations and my GPA plummeting from 3.8 to 3.0. I got a pretty decent job out of college and I was doing okay but I gained an alcohol addiction. I struggled with being an alcoholic for about 2 years and now I've been sober for almost one year. 

Since then I've become an App Developer at a great company and my previous job as an IT Project Specialist is now my side hustle. I'm making an incredible amount of money and I get to help my parents and my friends who are struggling. I'm at the best place I've ever been in my life. It didn't happen until I started exercising everyday, giving up booze, seeing a therapist and taking more meds even though my goal was to be on the least amount of meds possible. That was a very silly goal. 

I'll also share that my coworker never went to college and is miles and miles ahead of me when it comes to coding. All he did was study what he could find on the internet and took cheap courses and just grinded  for years until he landed his first gig. So don't think that you can't do something amazing career wise without a degree. You just have to be dedicated. 

Get therapy, exercise, keep trying new meds, eat healthy, don't abuse drugs and alcohol, even caffeine. This will put you in a spot where you can maintain relationships which are also huge for mental health. Idk i guess just whatever you do... don't give up and just keep failing until you succeed.