We know the brain is changed by bouts of mental illness, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know it. Joel Stottlemier goes to the mat for his fellow bipolars:

I don’t have a cold that I’m going to get over and be better in a week. I’ve had a spike shot through my head and I will never be the same. It’s easier to understand this disease if you stop thinking about germs and medicines… We look the same as we did, maybe even sound the same, but the experience of surviving Bipolar disorder has changed us emotionally and physically.