There are no online tests for you to know, most of them over simplify the situation. Feelings are subjective and hard to quantify. Like comparing a fall with bruised knee to normal emotions, then the same fall with dislocated knee is the major depression and then the fall with a leg broken in 2 places displaced through the skin to the bipolar 1. You take a online test and it says did you fall – yes, did it hurt – yes, is there bruising – yes. = Result you have a broken or dislocated knee go immediately to the hospital. Daft isn't it!

Bipolar will consist of huge mood swings and totally distorted behaviour that can land you in serious trouble and that's the easy one. The other will include psychosis, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia or some mix of them.

If you are a teen it's almost definitely not bipolar and certainly not bipolar 1 you are far too logical and normal to be asking here – bp1's are swinging across the light poles in the nude having sex with what ever moves and spending masses of money they can't afford and don't have.

Your family and teachers would be the first to notice if you were that ill, they'd be dragging you towards the nearest hospital not the other way round.

Everyone has moods like those of Bipolar Disorder……. because everyone has mood swings, momentary loss of judgment, likes to go shopping, likes sex, feels down sometimes, gets angry now and then and is hyper on occasion. The difference is that all of these symptoms in Bipolar are so intense that they interfere with your ability to function. Think of a pole (biPOLEr) with 0 at the center (0 being normal) and 10 at one end (manic) and -10 at the other (deep depression). Most people have swings but stay within 3 to -3. I have fairly severe Bipolar 1 but since my psychosis is mild I go from -9 to 9…. Also depression that comes and goes is not bipolar but just recurring depression, you have to have mania for it to be Bipolar….. you have to go to both ends of the pole.

Rapidly changing emotions or becoming angry or sad easily is not all there is to Bipolar. That is just having emotions. People with Bipolar Disorder do not just change emotions quickly, they go through periods of depression followed by periods of mania or elevated mood. Mood affects everything about you…. your energy level, self esteem, sleep patterns, appetite, sexuality, emotional response, judgment, etc….. not just your emotions. And while rapid cycling is possible, it is rare. The average person with Bipolar only cycles two or three times a year and the moods last for weeks or months. It is considered rapid cycling if they cycle 4 or more times in a year.

While everyone with Bipolar has a different set of symptoms and a different severity of symptoms, this is what Bipolar is like for me:

Depression – too tired to get out of bed, shower, even to brush my teeth. Cry all the time, sleep 16 hours a day. Feelings of self loathing and guilt that drive me to think of suicide but I'm to tired to even think about how to go about killing myself. It makes you feel small and worthless and completely insignificant. It makes you think about how big the world is and how meaningless you are in it….. and it refuses to let you have any good thoughts or see any good things…. when you look in the mirror all you see is pain, you don't even see yourself, you don't taste your favorite foods anymore, see that flowers are blooming, whether or not the sun is out, you become so inward that you hardly even notice your surroundings….. You don't even feel love for people anymore…. positive thoughts are just not possible…… it is a deep dark hole with no way out and no light for hope…. and most of all it makes you feel sooooo alone. And even if there were someone who cared about you they would be better off if you killed yourself……. because all you will ever be is a burden……. this can last from a couple of weeks to a couple of years.

Mania – Way too happy! PARTY GIRL! love drink and drugs. Talk really fast and pressured because my thoughts are going faster than my mouth can keep up with. Hypersexual – like I sleep with strangers and guys I just met on the internet or I masturbate 10 times a day. I once became bisexual because there were twice as many people to sleep with. down load porn and spend tons of money on sex toys. Spending sprees….. I once spent my mortgage money on african violets, yep, $1500 on African violets (then I got depressed and let them all die). Quit my job because I wanted my vacation pay for lottery tickets and I was so convinced I would win that I started shopping and writing bad checks because I'd be rich as soon as the numbers were drawn. Decided that I could replace the furnace in my home by myself… I mean how hard can it be….. Only sleep 2 or maybe 3 hours a night for months on end and never feel tired. In the end I was unemployed, $30,000 in debt, and had almost lost my home, which needed a new furnace because I had removed the old one.. or parts of it anyway. This can last for months.

I also have mixed states when I am depressed and manic at the same time which are truly the worst… By body and mind are depressed but there is this undercurrent of energy running all the time….. I'm highly emotional but the emotions tend to be negative (guilt and anger) I have intrusive thoughts and urges to mutilate myself (like wanting to stick my hands in the garbage disposal or cooking them on the BBQ), and I also have psychotic episodes where I hallucinate. This is when I am most suseptible to suicide because I am depressed, wanting to hurt myself, and I have the mental energy to plan and carry it out.

First, listen to your girls, and go out with them. Try to have fun, and enjoy your single life for awhile.
Baby steps, it will be really hard in the beginning but soon you will feel much better.
Second, don't live with him for those 2 weeks, go stay with some family or friends, or ask him to do so. That could spoil your decision, and lead you to forgive him once again.

True, he was the one who gave up by not trying to get rid of his addictions, to help your relationship.

First, listen to your girls, and go out with them. Try to have fun, and enjoy your single life for awhile.
Baby steps, it will be really hard in the beginning but soon you will feel much better.
Second, don't live with him for those 2 weeks, go stay with some family or friends, or ask him to do so. That could spoil your decision, and lead you to forgive him once again.

True, he was the one who gave up by not trying to get rid of his addictions, to help your relationship.

It's good to have people who know a bit about life, have had a mental illness or some life experiences that make them a bit special with extra understanding of weaknesses. I've seen art therapy in nursing care homes, cancer wards and mental hospitals do wonderful stuff. I'm mentally ill and still work in a counselling position BUT I'm very aware of the possibility of it making me ill again so I step back as and when I need to to recharge my batteries.

If you have bipolar and it has been successfully treated and you are stable on medications I see no problem but it's going to take a while to get to that stage and it may be what you have to lean to accept.

I'd have though you'd be seeing a psychiatrist not a psychologist. Psychiatrists are the only ones who can diagnose professionally and medicate appropriately. A psychologist will be helpful in working out how to stay in control or deal with things that come up, challenge any psychosis. I assume the antidepressants have kicked you into some form of mania or psychotic mania? Presumably you were taken off them but you'll need some mood stabilisers instead. The psychologist can't say one way or another if you'd be good at art therapy and it's not their place to say.

When you come to apply for a position as a art therapist you don't need to tell them you have bipolar but maybe it would be good to do so. Some places will use that as an excuse to not hire you although that's not what they'll say is thereason. A lot of mentally ill people don't mention it because mental health stigma exists everywhere in life, even in medical professionals.

Just for the record, marijuana has been clinically show to provide some limited relief for the symptoms of SOME of those illnesses, primarily glaucoma.The rest are nothing but rumor, unsubstantiated by medical evidence.

The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. Youll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.

However, the background of it being illegal is that, for most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. Its not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that its been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.

The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600s, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900s.

Americas first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law ordering all farmers to grow Indian hemp seed. There were several other must grow laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.

The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp plantations (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton

Please answer mine:

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind

The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. Youll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.

However, the background of it being illegal is that, for most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. Its not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that its been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.

The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600s, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900s.

Americas first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law ordering all farmers to grow Indian hemp seed. There were several other must grow laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.

The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp plantations (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton

Please answer mine:

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind