My Experience With Bipolar Depression

I have had bipolar disorder and depression since I am 18 years old. I am now a 65 year old male living at the NJ shore. I missed my whole senior year of high school. I went to a private boy's high school for college prep and was number six in my class of 250 boys before mania and depression set in.

I went to a psychistrist at 17 years old who pumped me full of 2000mg of thorazine and sedatives for sleep to knock me out at night. He used to pop gum drops and analyze me and say a ha a ha behind his desk. I got more and more depressed. I graduated from the high school number 11 in my class after a nervous break down and then went to college to major in pre-med. I wanted to become a psychiatrist. I never did. Instead I became a college professor with many degrees.

I started my freshman year in college and got very deeply depressed and ended up in the psychiatric ward of a large city hospital in NJ. I now had a new psychistrist who said I was so deeply depressed that I needed shock treatments as they were called. I ended up getting 10 of them in 1972. They helped me get out of the bad depression that I was in.

I got out of the hospital and ended up finishing college with a BA in Spanish Magna Cum Laude and then earned an MBA in International Business and became a college professor for SUNY in 1982. I came a long way from the depressed kid from high school and freshman year of college.

I am now semi retired and living at the NJ shore in a nice place near the ocean and the bay. I have a great psychiatrist who graduated from Yale. I have been seeing him for over 11 years. I take my meds and have a great therapist with a PhD in psychology from NYU.

When I had applied for a job with SUNY I was approached by the CIA to work for them. I sent my resume to them. They called me for an interview. I had to meet them at a Saddle Brook, NJ at a Howard Johnsons Hotel. They are a clandestine organization.

I went to the hotel and asked for the interviewer and they said he wasn't in his room. I then went by the pool. He was standing there in a suit and told me his name and asked my name. He had a Wall Street Journal in front of him and told me to follow ten steps in back of him to his room and knock of his door. I did and knocked on his door. He let me in. He had a model of CIA headquarters there and then started interviewing me. It was during the Reagan administration. He asked me to be a spy during the interview. I said isn't that dangerous? He said not not like James Bond. I speak fluent Russian. The CIA likes people who speaks fluent Russian.

I got offered a job by the CIA. I changed my mind and decided to stay as a professor. i thought working for the CIA was too dangerous. The CIA must have known that I had bipolar disorder and didn't mind. They recruit people who have the skills that they want.

I was also approached by the Navy to be a cryptologist. I took all their exams and passed them. I was going to be an officer in training. I took all the officer and cryptology exams. I passed them all with flying colors. It shows that people with bipolar can be highly intelligent. My blood pressure was high and couldn't get into the Navy. I still stayed as a professor. I had many chances at many careers but always loved teaching.

I am now going back to school for an MSW online with ASU and thinking of becoming a therapist. I have so much experience in life with bipolar and teaching and other things and can be a great therapist. I will be writing and teaching people about mental illness issues.

There is hope for people with bipolar disorder. I am dating again and have a great woman in my life now and have been surviiving the virus in NJ. I have been doing well. I am a survivor. I hope this story gives people hope that one can live a normal life with depression and bipolar disorder with the proper meds and therapy over a lifetime. I am proof of that.