Never run into this thread before, but I guess I'll share, for what it's worth. I am diagnosed bi-polar, have been for about 4 years now, though I have actually been dealing with it for much longer than that. I haven't read all 14 pages of this thread, so I don't know if anyone else also deals with this specific disorder. Basically, you cycle between stages of depression and mania (mine usually last about 6 months or so). The depression side I'm sure others are familiar with. As far as mania goes, essentially it's an uncontrolled euphoria in which you go kind of crazy (not sleeping, doing stuff you normally would never do, etc.). Anyway, it just occurred to me that we probably don't need my primer on a DT forum since we have Six Degrees at our disposal.
But I have been on medication for the past 4 years, which has helped immensely, along with therapy meetings with a counselor. I am not by any means "cured," nor do I believe I ever will be. I still cycle through the same stages but normally they are much less intense (due to the meds), and I have learned to deal with them much better.
It's cool to see a thread like this, though, because, unfortunately, there is still far too great a stigma surrounding mental illnesses/disorders. I know I don't talk about it much IRL.