Coping with Bipolar Disorder

Jenifer says she would sometimes lose control during manic episodes, including once in a nail salon. "I felt a racist act had been committed there and it enraged me. You don't get angry. You become enraged," she says. "And I just cleared [a] whole shelf of the nail polish. And I went, 'Oh.' I ran out of there. … After I did it, I called my therapist. I said, 'I'm out of control.'"

Jenifer also says her manic behavior led to things like road rage. One morning, she says she left her house feeling calm—until the driver behind her bumped her car while trying to pass. "In that second I went right into a rage and I chased him going 60 miles per hour in a 35 speed limit zone," she says. "The rage in that moment is saying, 'Get him. Get that person who hit my car!' That's all that's going through your mind. There's no rational thinking. Bipolar can destroy the bases of rational thinking."