I see it as a robber of life since it can hypersensitize a person to stress, and, as you said, the bipolar symptoms themselves are stressful enough. Since life is stressful, this robs people of life, severely compromising accomplishing their goals. It can be done, but with going a lot slower so with less stress... which also means the person needs to have money flowing in so that isn't just one more stress. Lucky is the bipolar with that. It is really bad when it strikes before a person is out of college AND they have no money flowing in, like from parents.

The solution would really be adequate treatment of the underlying problems (aka the illness) so the person is symptom free, which includes once again not succumbing to the stresses that accompany a satisfying life.