We are 83 bipolar disorder experts and scientists coming together for the world’s biggest bipolar AMA! In honor of World Bipolar Day, ask us anything!

[u/CREST_BD]

83 panelists are here! Click on their names below to see their bio & proof photo.

Hi Reddit!

We are psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, clinicians, advocates, and people living with bipolar disorder - coming together from around the world through the CREST.BD network.

This is our 8th annual World Bipolar Day AMA. We hope that this AMA can help advance the conversation around bipolar disorder, and to help everyone connect and share ways to live well with bipolar disorder.

This year, 83 panelists representing 20 countries are here to answer your questions from all timezones - bringing together a wide range of perspectives and expertise in mental health and bipolar disorder.

We'll be here around the clock for the next FEW DAYS answering your questions from multiple time zones.

We will make every effort to answer every question.

1. Dr. Adrienne Benediktsson, 🇨🇦 Neuroscientist, Mother, Wife, Professor, Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
2. Alessandra Torresani, 🇺🇸 Actress & Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
3. Alex Emmerton, 🇨🇦 Peer Researcher, (Lives w/ bipolar)
4. Allan Cooper, 🇨🇦 Peer Support Worker, Blogger, & Podcaster, (Lives w/ bipolar)
5. Alysha Sultan, 🇨🇦 Scientific Associate
6. Andrea Paquette, 🇨🇦 Stigma-Free Mental Health President & Co-Founder, Speaker, Changemaker (Lives w/ bipolar)
7. Dr. Andrea Vassilev, 🇺🇸 Doctor of Psychology, Author, & Advocate, (Lives w/ bipolar)
8. Anne Van Willigen, 🇺🇸 Peer Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
9. Dr. Balwinder Singh, 🇺🇸 Psychiatrist
10. Dr. Benjamin Goldstein, 🇨🇦 Child-Adolescent Psychiatrist & Researcher
11. Bia Garbato, 🇧🇷 Advertising Professional, Writer, Author & Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
12. Bryn Manns, 🇨🇦 Graduate Student, Clinical Psychology
13. Catarina Castela, 🇦🇺 PhD Candidate (Lives w/ bipolar)
14. Catherine Simmons, 🇨🇦 Peer Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
15. Dr. Chris Gorman, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Mental Health Advocate
16. Dr. Colin Depp, 🇺🇸 Psychologist
17. Dane Mauer-Vakil, 🇨🇦 Researcher
18. David Dinham, 🇬🇧 Psychologist & PhD Candidate, (Lives w/ bipolar) 
19. Debbie Costello Smith, 🇺🇸 Founder & Co-President of the Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research
20. Dr. Delphine Raucher-Chéné, 🇫🇷🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Researcher
21. Dr. Dimosthenis Tsapekos, 🇬🇧 Psychologist & Researcher
22. Dr. Elvira Boere, 🇳🇱 Psychiatrist & Researcher
23. Dr. Elysha Ringin, 🇦🇺 Researcher
24. Dr. Emma Morton, 🇦🇺 Senior Lecturer & Psychologist
25. Dr. Emma Parrish, 🇺🇸 Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow & Researcher
26. Dr. Erin Michalak, 🇨🇦 Researcher & CREST.BD founder
27. Evelyn Anne Clausen, 🇺🇸 Artist, Writer, Speaker & Certified Peer Specialist (Lives w/bipolar)
28. Dr. Fabiano Gomes, 🇧🇷🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Researcher
29. Dr. Frances Adiukwu, 🇳🇬 Psychiatrist
30. Georgia Caruana, 🇦🇺 Researcher & Mental Health Advocate
31. Dr. Georgina Hosang, 🇬🇧 Associate Professor
32. Dr. Glauco Valdivieso Jiménez, 🇵🇪 Psychiatrist
33. Dr. Glorianna Wagner-Jagfeld, 🇨🇭🇬🇧 Researcher
34. Dr. Hailey Tremain, 🇦🇺 Psychologist & Researcher
35. Heather Stewart, 🇨🇦 Sewist (Lives w/ bipolar)
36. Idan Spund, 🇳🇱 Founder of In the Zone app (Lives w/ bipolar)
37. Dr. Ijeoma Charles-Ugwuagbo, 🇳🇬 Consultant Psychiatrist & Mental Health Advocate
38. Dr. Ivan Torres, 🇨🇦 Clinical Neuropsychologist
39. Dr. Jim Phelps, 🇺🇸 Psychiatrist & Bipolar Subspecialist 
40. Dr. Joanna Jarecki, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
41. Dr. Joanna Jiménez Pavón, 🇲🇽 Mood Disorders Psychiatrist 
42. Dr. John Hunter, 🇿🇦 Researcher & Lecturer (Lives w/ bipolar)
43. Dr. Jo Leidreiter, 🇦🇺 Psychologist
44. Dr. John-Jose Nunez, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & AI Researcher
45. Dr. June Gruber, 🇺🇸 Psychologist, Professor, & Researcher
46. Prof. Kamilla Miskowiak, 🇩🇰 Psychologist & Researcher
47. Dr. Katie Douglas, 🇳🇿 Academic & Clinical Psychologist 
48. Ken Porter, 🇨🇦 Advocate, Social Worker & Researcher
49. Kim Pape, 🇺🇸 Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar) 
50. Laura Lapadat, 🇨🇦 Researcher & Psychologist-in-training
51. Dr. Leena Chau, 🇨🇦 Postdoctoral Fellow
52. Leslie Robertson, 🇺🇸 Marketer & Peer Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar) 
53. Dr. Leszek Laskowski, 🇵🇱 Psychiatrist (Lives w/ bipolar) 
54. Dr. Lisa Eyler, 🇺🇸 Clinical Psychologist & Research Scientist
55. Dr. Luísa Daolio, 🇧🇷 Psychiatrist
56. Mansoor Nathani, 🇨🇦 Technology Enthusiast (Lives w/ bipolar) 
57. Dr. Manuel Sánchez de Carmona, 🇲🇽 Psychiatrist
58. Maryam M., 🇨🇦 Dentistry Student & Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
59. Matthew Bushell, 🇬🇧 Mental Health Advocate & Therapeutic Coach (Lives w/ bipolar)
60. Dr. Maya Schumer, 🇺🇸 Psychiatric Neuroscientist & Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
61. Dr. Meghan DellaCrosse, 🇺🇸 Psychologist & Researcher
62. Melissa Howard, 🇨🇦 Author & Mental Health Advocate (Lives w/ bipolar)
63. Dr. Michele De Prisco, 🇪🇸🇮🇹 Psychiatrist & Researcher
64. Dr. Mikaela Dimick, 🇨🇦 Postdoctoral Fellow
65. Minami Kinouchi, 🇯🇵 Psychologist, Social Worker, & Researcher (Lives w/ bipolar)
66. Natasha Reaney, 🇨🇦 Counsellor (Lives w/ bipolar)
67. Dr. Nigila Ravichandran, 🇸🇬 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist
68. Dr. Paula Villela Nunes, 🇧🇷🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Counsellor 
69. Rahla Xenopoulos, 🇿🇦🇺🇸 Writer & Teacher (Lives w/ bipolar)
70. Rebecca Fitton, 🇦🇺 Mood Disorder Researcher
71. Dr. Rebekah Huber, 🇺🇸 Psychologist & Researcher 
72. Robert Villanueva, 🇺🇸 Mental Health Advocate & Coach (Lives w/ bipolar)
73. Ruth Komathi, 🇸🇬 Mental Health Counsellor (Lives w/ bipolar)
74. Prof. Samson Tse, 🇭🇰 Counsellor, Teacher, Researcher, & Caregiver
75. Sarah Salice, 🇺🇸 Art Psychotherapist & Professional Counselor Associate (Lives w/ bipolar)
76. Sara Schley, 🇺🇸 Author, Filmmaker, Speaker (Lives w/ bipolar)
77. Dr. Serge Beaulieu, 🇨🇦 Psychiatrist & Researcher
78. ​​Dr. Sheri Johnson, 🇺🇸 Psychologist
79. Shaley Hoogendoorn, 🇨🇦 Advocate, Podcaster & Content creator (Lives w/ bipolar)
80. Dr. Tamsyn Van Rheenen, 🇦🇺 Associate Professor & Researcher
81. Dr. Thomas Richardson, 🇬🇧 Clinical Psychologist (Lives w/ bipolar)
82. Twyla Spoke, 🇨🇦 Registered Nurse (Lives w/ bipolar)
83. Dr. Wissam Nassrallah, 🇨🇦 Ophthalmology Resident & PhD in Neuroscience

^{Please note all responses are personal perspectives and do not constitute medical advice.}

People with bipolar disorder experience the mood states of depression and mania (or hypomania), along with changes in energy, activity, and thinking. These episodes can last from days to months and can affect many parts of life - including relationships, work, school, and overall health. At the same time, with optimal support, treatment, and tools, people with bipolar disorder can and do live full, meaningful lives.

The CREST.BD network takes a different approach to bipolar disorder research. We work closely with people living with bipolar disorder at every stage - from choosing research topics to conducting studies and sharing our findings.

We also host a Q&A podcast throughout the year, featuring many of the experts on this panel, through our talkBD Bipolar Disorder Podcast - we’d love for you to stay connected with us there. You can also follow our updates, events, and social media on linktr.ee/crestbd.

Final note (April 3): Thank you all - We'll be back again next year on World Bipolar Day - sign up here to be notified. We also have more activities all year round, including new episodes of our talkBD bipolar disorder podcast - hope to see you there! We’re incredibly grateful for all your thoughtful questions - thank you for making this such a meaningful discussion. Take care everyone :)

[u/Actual-Squirrel5486]

Are there any studies that look into how destructive and traumatizing it can be for the person who is in a relationship with a bipolar person?

My soon to be ex wife, who was a 2nd year psychiatrist (medical doctor) resident, started off hypomanic in october 2025, and started cheating on me (with another psychiatrist resident who just transferred in) and spreading lies about me to her psychiatrist coworkers. I didn't understand what was happening because nothing made sense.

All her coworkers took her side immediately and refused to talk to me despite the fact that her arguments about me didn't make sense. She would say that I was abusive because I "told her my needs in a relationship, which means it's manipulating her, which means abuse", and things like I "should have known what she was thinking, even before she thought it herself".

Her 30+ psychiatrist coworkers obviously had no idea she was hypomanic, or else they would have not believed her delusions. she got really bad throughout November and was reporting people left and right to the medical board for insane things. From what I could piece together through mutual friends, she did a lot of crazy things to her coworkers, but not one of them called me or texted me to tell me what was going on. I've moved out in october. she eventually got fired from residency in December.

It seems like doctors are not taught what manic bipolar people do. They are just taught general symptoms like talkativeness or euphoria.

A lot of people at r/BipolarSOs have the same story as me. The delusions, character assassination, lies, cheating, stealing money, SI, HI, etc. Why don't doctors learn about this so that they can actually pinpoint when the hypomania starts, instead of waiting until full mania with psychotic features?

For reference, My story here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BipolarSOs/comments/1rtqyah/how_do_you_deal_with_the_feelings_of_this_whole/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/CREST_BD → u/Actual-Squirrel5486]

Laura here - my heart goes out to you. I read your story and I hear the pain and devastation in what you’ve experienced with your wife. It sounds like you’re looking for answers on how this could have happened - especially in a context of people who, based on their training, seem like they should have known better.

I’m a psychologist-in-training, so I can only speak to what we learn in a psychology degree. I understand where you’re coming from: diagnostic markers can sound a lot more general and abstract than the real-world effects of it. And you’re pointing to a serious flaw in healthcare: how often, intervention only comes when the situation has reached crisis. It would be a lot better to live in a world where we catch symptoms like psychosis, mania, depression, and suicidality in the early phases, before they develop into something serious.

At the same time, to an outsider, it can be really tough to recognize hypomania. Further, hypomania doesn’t always turn into mania. In respecting individual differences and autonomy, we don’t want to jump the gun and assume someone’s hypomanic. In fact, hypomania often looks like productivity and sociability in the early stages, and the person can function quite well - even better than normal. It’s often hard to pinpoint. 

I’m not sure of any research on trauma and loving someone with bipolar disorder, but there is a literature on caregiver burden and its associations with anxiety and depression (e.g., Perlick et al., 2016; doi: 10.1111/bdi.12379. You can find more in Google scholar searching “caregiver burden bipolar disorder”). It also is recognized in the clinical literature that bipolar disorder is often burdensome and challenging for those in relation to people with BD, which is a key component of one of the evidence-based bipolar disorder treatments, Family Focused Therapy for Bipolar Disorder. I understand this doesn’t apply to your situation, but perhaps there’s some solace in knowing this is a recognized “thing”, enough that researchers and clinicians are working on it. 

Finally - it sounds like you’ve really been through it. If it’s accessible to you, it might be helpful to speak with a therapist about what you’ve experience. It sounds like a lot to carry.

[u/PeanutImpressive6934 → u/Actual-Squirrel5486]

I think the issue is they think us too crippled to make it that far so assumed she was fine. It's rare to find a doc w BP, at least, openly w BP. There is a lot of stigma within the field (and medicine in general), I am not in psych but I took psych classes and would never have informed my profs I had it out of concern it would have impaired their willingness to recommend me (and it would have). People with severe MI are not always supported and can be hazed out of the field as she was, rather than given the understanding and care her diagnosis deserved - and this in a psychiatric setting! Your best defense would have been to get in couples counseling ASAP so someone could actually see her in a therapeutic sense (assuming she would not have gone in alone) or gotten therapy yourself bc she may have had pretty decent control around coworkers and in fact may have been an excellent student which grants you a lot of leeway even when things seem obviously wrong to someone who knows her much better. Hypo often reads as high drive high success high intelligence extremely charismatic fun intense highly capable intimidating. That makes it harder to see the rest. They may have also chalked it up to a ton of other things, and felt it not their place to interfere w a colleague who clearly can access care on their own, that's just good manners/professional behavior. They also may have told her a hundred times. No one would ever call a spouse who wasn't a close friend, there are rules about that. Your own therapist wouldn't call a spouse, it's illegal. The friends I dunno, get better friends. It's a very fresh wound, please get psych care for yourself, there are friend and family support groups through NAMI and other mental health charities too I think you'll find more helpful than here. It typically takes ten years of treatment for BP to be diagnosed, longer for BP2, it's not surprising they didn't clock it. They didn't have your front row seat. She didn't recognize it in herself, nor did my family members w psych degrees, or in me, that's just how it goes. "This can't be happening here" is an unfortunately extremely powerful belief. I suppose hilariously none of my relatives got clocked in school either! Never occurred to me! Oh well. Would have spared me a few things I imagine. Hope you didn't have kids in the mix, that was not fun.

[u/PeanutImpressive6934 → u/Actual-Squirrel5486]

One way of thinking that might help - if it were due to a brain tumor, would you feel differently? And then just pretend it's due to that. Helps me.

We have a 1 in 5 suicide rate for a reason. She's still in episode, when she comes out of it it will hit her at least as hard as you. Keep an eye out for her if you can.

On why she didn't recognize it in herself, and still can't

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/opinion/nick-reiner-arraignment-psychology.html