Andy Behrman

Friends and family were convinced I was functioning just fine because I was efficient, productive and successful - who wouldn't be working twenty hour days? I had everybody fooled with my illness.

My ever-present mania meant I was never phased by staying up twenty hours a day or by the different time zones. I was Superman.

I felt like I was the only person on the planet with this 'thing called depression', and I remember being frightened. I was knocked out and dopey, and I cried all of the time.

My manic depression was ravaging my life, but because nobody could see it, many people thought it was a figment of my imagination.