From Carrie Fisher's book Wishful Drinking

“One of the things that baffles me (and there are quite a few) is how there can be so much lingering stigma with regards to mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder.  In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls.  Not unlike a tour of duty in Afghanistan (though the bombs and bullets, in this case, come from the inside).  At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of.  They should issue medals along with the steady stream of medications one has to ingest.”

I was always jealous of the manic-depressives because they occasionally got to have some ups.  But after talking with some in the hospital, they explained the ups were not that great either.  One of the most common misperceptions about depression is that its sufferers are somehow weak.  The opposite is true--just living through the day takes, as Carrie says, stamina, courage and balls.