Back in high school, I was straight edge, but I got invited to a “cool” party over the weekend where there would be alcohol, so of course I went. Come Monday at school, everyone was giving me high fives because they thought I drank so much. Truth is, I had just taken a bunch of cans of beer and slid them into my JNCO’s, so come the end of the night, no beer was left, but I was selling it for $5/can. I made some good money because I was able to think ahead. No one else figured out that I was totally sober I guess.
On that topic, there was the time I almost got shot by the sheriff of my town coming home from work (I was a dishwasher at a local tavern) at like 2 in the morning when he pulled me over in my driveway. I told my dad the next morning of the encounter and he just laughed, which, btw, is not the right response (it was just my dad and me in the house at this point, since I had found my Mom dead on a school morning a year or so earlier when I was 15 and my older siblings were off at university at this point). I immediately got out of my car and started yelling at the cop. Somehow, things were eventually de-escalated, and just as he was about to get into his car some 15 minutes after the initial stop, and I was about to go into my house, the sheriff apologized to me saying that he was likely wrong and that I was correct. I yelled back at him something like “You damn right.”
I should have been arrested at the very least, but I lived in a small town and the sheriff likely figured out who I was and my history, so he let it slide.
DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THE POLICE LIKE THIS. I’ve called 9-1-1 on myself several times, and no one knows who I am; I just get 5150’ed or 5250’ed almost immediately, and rightfully so.
There was no real way for me to know that this was mania at the time, so it’s something that I can laugh about now, but wow, have times changed. It can be tough with bipolar, as it’s likely genetic so your parents won’t catch on to your mood changes, and I’m not the only one who was dealing with having only one parent.
#Oakland