AK, a 27-year-old in New Jersey, has been in and out of therapy since she was in high school, when she began seeing her mom’s therapist and was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder, also known as manic depression.
Through college and beyond, AK struggled to find the right treatment as well as the right therapist. She was prescribed medication, which she says didn’t work for her. “I felt worse; I felt depressed all the time,” she says, adding that she stopped taking the medicine a few years ago.
Over time, though, things got better. AK finished college, and got – and held down – jobs. She has never mentioned her condition at work.
“I wish someone had told me that – when I started this – that life gets better, then it gets worse, then it gets better, then it gets worse,” she says. “It goes up and down. It’s just how it is. And you just have to keep going, every day.”