Bipolar Stigma
When the psychiatrist first said “you have bipolar disorder” I thought no way i’m not crazy!?! This was before I actually knew what bipolar disorder really was. I had an idea of what it was just like most people think they know what it is. That bipolar is someone who switches moods all the time and is happy one second and angry the next and just has crazy mood swings. That mania is being crazy and going out and buying a Ferrari because it’s what they have seen on tv. While that’s kind of the case, manic and depressive episodes have to be a certain number of weeks or months to even be considered an episode, and while mixed episodes, rapid cycling and ultra radian cycling exist it’s not just “angry one minute happy the next”. The next thing I thought of was Kanye West. As an avid Kanye fan and him being in the media a lot, having all these public “breakdowns” due to his bipolar; I thought what? that’s not me at all. After leaving the psychiatrist I did more research about bipolar and learned a lot more about what it actually is, the diagnosis made more sense to me.
Most people however don’t know much about what bipolar really is and there are so many stigmas around it. When I search on google “bipolar disorder” under frequently asked questions you see “Can people with bipolar have a job?”, “Can people with bipolar truly love?”, “Can people with bipolar disorder live a normal life?”, “Are people with bipolar crazy?”, “Do people with bipolar hear voices?”. Seeing all these frequently asked questions is really discouraging for someone who has just been diagnosed or whose child or friend has been diagnosed. It’s important to remember that just because the diagnosis and word bipolar may be on your file that doesn’t mean that you are not the same person you were before you were diagnosed. There are good times and bad times for me and many people with bipolar but i’m still the same person who can have a job, love, and live a normal life with the help of medications, treatment and support from my family and friends.