We are all functional schizophrenics. Everything you see, hear, smell or experience, you do so because your mind tells you that you do. It is real because your mind tells you it is real.

You think your reality into being. Thought alters your experiences according to your own personal bias. None of us are experiencing the same reality. What we call life is merely a series of overlapping realities.

Your mind is a clever liar. You will never know whether or not it is telling the truth.

I often encounter difficulty when trying to explain to others what it's like to be bipolar. Today I'm going to attempt to explain it with a metaphor that's been rattling around in my head.

Imagine an outline of a person. This is a representation of self-image.

It is my impression that most people have a fairly defined image of themselves. Who they think they are, what they believe, how they behave. This may change over time, but at any given moment it is generally defined.

Now image multiple outlines superimposed in a way that they overlap, like a Venn diagram.

For me, being bipolar is like being multiple people that are similar but different. Overlapping versions of myself, where the common ground is "me".

Now imagine the diagram isn't stationary. The outlines shift, sometimes as a whole, sometimes individually. Sometimes they move inward, overlapping more, creating a more cohesive and centrally defined image. Sometimes they move outwards, losing cohesion and becoming more individually distinct. Sometimes the whole thing kaleidoscopes, losing all sense of definition and structure, becoming a distortion of the original image.

This is what it's like to be bipolar.

Bipolar disorder is often represented by, or thought of, as mood swings. This is reductive. The term mood disorder itself can be misleading. What a person with bipolar disorder experiences is not just shifts in mood, but shifts in personality as well. The way we behave, and the way we think, changes. Sometimes rapidly, unpredictably, and erratically. It's not just a matter of how we're feeling at any given time.

My self-image is not clearly defined. How I view myself, what I think, and how I act are partially, or greatly, dependent on the level of certain chemicals in my brain.

But I am still me. The different outlines are all David. Or Davey. Or whatever variation it is that you have chosen to refer to me by. They are all different, yet they are all the same.

Truth be told, this probably isn't a very good metaphor. But it's what I've got.

If there is still but one person who can believe in peace and love, even in a world filled with violence and hate, then all is not lost.

Demand a better world.

Just remember that it will not exist unless you help create it.

For those of you so convinced that the government needs to reduce spending by cutting social services, I have this to say:

The burden of the rich on society is far greater than the burden of the poor.

Why would you refuse assistance to one unable to walk on their own, and then allow another, so arrogant and undeserving, to walk over you unimpeded?

We are all hypocrites, but there are those of us who choose to be compassionate in spite of it. Judge us as you will.

Imagine a world where wages were competitive universally, where companies were held to the same labor and environmental standards regardless of the location of their manufacturing plants, where healthcare was accessible and affordable to all who needed it, and where quality education is provided to everyone, regardless of economic status, ethnicity, or religious/political/social beliefs.

It wouldn't even be that hard to create that world.

Think about it. If corporations were required to pay their workers in third world countries comparable wages to workers in the US, there wouldn't be third world countries anymore. And it wouldn't companies wouldn't even have to raise the cost of goods because the dramatic increase of potential consumers would mean significant increases in demand.

It is a fallacy that there must be poverty for there to be wealth. Money is an artificial construct, so there can always be more of it. And there can never be a shortage of possessions while new ones are constantly being made.

And do know what would happen? There would be less disease, less famine, less suffering, and less senseless killing. Peace would become commonplace, because there would be no need to fight tooth and nail over the barest of scraps. Open-mindedness and reason would replace fear and ignorance.

We live in a world full of vast disparity because a small handful of people desire it to be that way, and the majority do nothing to change it.

Take a while and really think about it. Which world would you rather live in? This one, or the one I described.

It can be difficult being a thinker. It's easy to look back at a day (or a month, a year, or a life), and say "What have I done with my time?", and feel like one has done nothing at all. When in truth the answer is "I have thought".

And in those thoughts all the secrets of life can be revealed, if only for a brief moment.