My bipolar symptoms get way worse when life gets stressful or traumatic. Everyone has major life stress and trauma. What separates me is that when I go through stress, I can lose my mind. Whether it is psychotic mania or suicidal depression, when life gets tough, my disorder makes it way tougher. The odd thing is that I have been through difficult times without losing my mind. It’s hard to know what will be a trigger. I have more resilience when I’m taking my medications and living a healthy lifestyle. I suppose that’s obvious. What is not obvious are the breakthrough episodes I’ve had while taking medications as prescribed.  But the side effects of the medications are difficult to deal with. So in the past, I haven’t taken meds because of side effects. Another problem is that I’ve stopped taking my meds because I didn’t think I needed them. I’ve stopped them because I didn’t think I had any stress in my life that would cause an episode. The thing with life is you just have to give it some time, and some crazy shit will happen that will get anyone riled up. Maybe not as riled up as I get. But it still causes significant problems. I need to take it easy, but still take my meds and live healthily.