Bipolar Awareness
Alternatively titled: Yes I have bipolar disorder. Fuck off.
//begin rant
I was reading my subscriptions on BlogLines and I came across this on Dr. John Grohol's blog, World of Psychology, and I came across this article onBipolar Awareness Day during Mental Health Awarness Week (October 1-7).
I am glad that both things exist. Too many people are affected by psychological disorders and do not seek the help they need because of the social stigma placed on having mental health problems. Among the most stigmatized problems are: Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Now, I'm not going to say much about Schizophrenia because I don't have any first hand experience with it...well, not much. I'll just say that Schizophrenia is NOT the same thing as multiple personalities or, Dissociative Identity Disorder. And people with Schizophrenia can and do lead normal productive lives.
Anywho, on to Bipolar Awareness. I loathe people who say, "you're Bipolar" or "he's Bipolar" or "I'm Bipolar." Diseases should not define who a person is. If you person had AIDS or HIV, you wouldn't want people saying "You're AIDS." or "You're HIV" would you? So the proper way to say it is, "I have Bipolar Disorder."
So, hello internet, I have Bipolar Disorder I. I suffer from both manic episodes and depression. I am on a mood stabilizing medication an atypical antipsychotic, two antidepressants, and a benzodiazepine (anti-anxiety medication). I have been hospitalized three times in my life, once for being manic due to being on a high dose of antidepressants, and twice for being severely depressed. My second depressive episode was preceded by a terrible manic episode that caused me to have to drop out of school. 90% of the time I am a fully functional person. I am not "crazy" or "psychotic." I am as normal as the next person. I just happen to have a chemical imbalence in my brain. People with depression also have chemical imbalances; so do people with anxiety disorders. So why the stigma for people who have Bipolar Disorder?
True, Bipolar Disorder can be very severe and require hospitalization. But so can depression and anxiety. As long as people suffering from the disorder stay medicated, episodes can be reduced or eveb prevented. Part of the reason people who have Bipolar Disorder go off their medication is the fact that people judge them for having the disorder. We don't judge people who have diabetes for being on medication. So why do people judge people who have to take psychiatric medications? People who have diabetes also require hospitalization sometimes. What is the difference? Why is it okay for someone with diabetes to seek medical help, but not for someone with a psychiatric illness?
So, I challenge you to educate yourself about Bipolar Disorder. Find out what it is like first-hand. A very good autobiography by someone (a therapist and leading research psychologist on Bipolar Disorder) who suffers from Bipolar Disorder is, An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfeld Jamison.
//end rant
3 comments:
Heya, Crazy Bitch!
I'm valis. I'm also, I should point out, a guy. But that doesn't mean I'm not a lesbian. Well, except for that bothersome dictionary definition, that is. A good half of the women I know are either bi or lesbian. Strangely, I only know one gay. I must live a sheltered life – one in which I am a lesbian with spare and missing parts. Mere technicalities, I'm sure.
More to the subject, however, are my encounters with friends (intimate and otherwise) who must bear some level of bipolar disorder. I have seen the disorder in action and have to say it can be quite disturbing. Well, to someone like me anyway, who tends to have highs and lows of the normal sort - but predominately lows. To make matters even more interesting is the fact that I am a schizophrenic. I say interesting because there are symptoms of bipolar disorder that clash rather dramatically with those of schizophrenia. For example, the whole idea of denial that anything is wrong (bipolar) confronting the idea that the universe is out to get us all (schitzophenia). Yes, that's an over simplification, but just think about it. Two lovers, one bipolar and the other schizophrenic. How can that work? Short answer: it doesn't.
But all is not lost. The two disordered types together do a rather fine job of enabling substance abuse. Also, there's that not needing much sleep thing that's in common (mania) and the sleeping too much thing, too (depression). Usually, however, they seldom coincide. But there are other interesting dovetails that I discovered while enjoying a dramatic and inexplicably satisfying relationship with a person with bipolar disorder.
For example, there's the sometimes strong belief in special abilities and powers (manic) that can work wonders for waking dreams, hallucinations and delusions (schitzophenia). Match those two up properly and wonderful worlds of alternate realities fairly leap from the ground like radiated carrots. It can be intense and beautiful when not scaring the bejabbers out of the soul.
Another interesting conflict in a bipolar and schizophrenic relationship is the problem with affective flattening, or loss in emotional response (schitzophenia). The bipolar might be in a manic phase and nearly explosive with emotions, ideas, laughter and wild zeal. The schizophrenic may be in an unresponsive (emotionally) episode. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
But the absolute worst moments come when both enter a depressive phase concurrently. Both may consider suicide, or imagine that the other thinks them unworthy, guilty of failing the other in some profound way, or become co-dependently pessimistic. This can be exacerbated by a decline in interest in getting any work done, which can lead to financial and social problems of a radical sort.
But then there are those times when both have their minds racing at light speed, working hard toward interesting, useful, and creative goals fairly unhampered by the inhibitions that often cripple people. Wonderful worlds are created, joy and pleasure heighten to a heart-throbbing crescendo that brings the stars themselves into the room, and the gods singing in harmony with the wonder of life lived unbound by the usual consensual reality. It's like science fiction, mystery, fantasy, myth and magic all rolled up into one wondrous view of the universe. Or something.
I've been in such a relationship and I can tell you it was dynamic and interesting. And the love was true ... real. I think it was the love that made it work for the time it lasted.
So I believe I have had my Bipolar Awareness to the tune of a year or so. I can't say that I'm an expert, or that I truly understand the disorder such as a professional would. But I have some objective and subjective experience of it, and how it can interact with schizophrenia.
Or as she and I would call it – The Whole Sweet Bouquet.
- valis
An Unquiet Mind is awesome.
While I don't have experience with the highs of mania... I thought she had crawled into the depths of my own mind for the discussion of depression. Yikes.
http://ltdchef.blogspot.com
Recent studies have attested to the fact that depression has a number of genetical factors attached to it. Depression does come to the next generations if the members of the previous generation have had instances of depression. Especially bipolar depression has been proven to come down to the next generations in case the previous generations had it. http://www.xanax-effects.com
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