"Healing"?

We know that bipolar is an incurable but treatable disease.

What does the word "healing" mean to other people with bipolar?

I like your term "truce" Bill.

I see bipolar as a electronic game. It's challenging. Sometimes I win, sometimes "the computer" wins :).

Love that way of thinking Bill!

"Healing" to me is divine intervention, an immediate total and permanent cessation of symptoms.

But "remission" is very real, and I'm experiencing it. I think of it as a break in a life-long struggle with chronic illness. I do everything possible to be resistant to stress and to prolong this remission.

I'm enjoying it. In the last 13 months, there have been many days that I forget I have mental illness. Then other days, something shifts the delicate balance and I am reminded how temporary this comfort is and how quickly it may crumble.

In my opinion, "healing" is an action word, it means I am healing the damage my MI has caused to myself and the people around me. I've tried "remission" a couple of times, once when I was getting off drugs and once when I was 1/2 through CBT, neither worked out very well for me or my loved once, so I have made a promise to myself to never have that again. Everyone is different and if you can be sane without meds, Good For Your, just Not Good For Me.

I think living a healthy lifestyle is imperative with bipolar regardless of what meds we are on. I think you'd find that the majority of people's quality of life is improved through medication. It's trial and error to get the right meds at the right doses for the best possible health and being. If you are better off without meds, you are the exception to the majority of people with bipolar who (and those close to them) are greatly assisted by the correct medication.