I have had the opportunity to work with several autistic children and bi-polar individuals. I see them energetically from such a different perspective and view. With autism, what I have discerned from the individuals is that there is a portion of the soul that literally is 'out-of body'.
The Native cultures have worked with this phenomena for centuries; their term for working with this is 'soul retrieval'. Due to emotional traumas that have carried over from parallel existences, or from the cellular memories embedded within the psyches, or from physical traumas sustained as a small infant, the individual feels the earth realm is too scary and frightening a place to remain, therefore pulling a piece or several from their focused energy within the body, or soul fragments, back into the astral levels.
When this happens the individual doesn't have the power, the focus, the emotional parts of self, to fully integrate into a society based on drama and intensity. They become inept at exchanging in normal fashions and the sense of spatial dimension, boundaries, and appropriate emotional responses flounder and never bloom. In pulling the pieces and/or fragments of self back into the body, the soul has the ability through time and direction to become an active,emotional being.
As to bi-polar, how I've seen the brain, the compass of the two hemispheres goes 'cattywhampas' (a word from my childhood). I see the brain as operating on a north/south grid. It's as if the compass short-circuits and the needle shifts to an east/west position, thereby limiting access to the neuro-responders within the brain. From my view, it's a matter of realigning the compass, to allow the individual a clearer map to navigate. The key is to hold the emotional compass intact, so that the needle stays pure and direct allowing the brain to function. Again, it all goes back to emotions and choices. On some level a contract has been made to fulfill this type of lifetime, albeit a fascinating one.