u/Decent-Discount-2346

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder 10 years ago, and for 18 years now (starting at 12), I have completely been non-functional (in all the states, mania, depression and euthymia). I presume that the doctors have treated non-functioning as a consequence of BPAD. But could it be the other way around? I may have had problems with functioning first, and as a consequence have developed Bipolar patterns like grandiosity in order to deal with the real life inadequacies to compensate for them. Also, I distinctly experience "functioning" as a threshold crossing and not as a gradual spectrum i.e-I cross a line, and I am functional and I fall back below it, I am not functional again.