Yes, Venus! Learned helplessness, exactly. And when this phrase was coined, it was scientists doing experiments on dogs to prove that yes, beat someone down enough, and they lose their ability to find solutions. And it is scientifically proven!

Clinte, you're a dear and thank you for sharing the article. I finally read it last night. I see how people could relate to what she's saying about bp pain being misunderstood.

But after reading her first part, the 3 categories of bipolar people... (barf - sorry). This is total b.s. and I'm not in ANY of those categories. And this is scary because she's obviously reaching a lot of people, with misinformation. She speaks as if she's an authority on the subject, and she's not. She is just a writer with bp with her own opinions. So that worries me people reading it and from the responses, many treated it like a quiz, like oh i'm in the 2nd category, i'm in the 3rd category. And sorry but those 3 categories aren't a real thing, that's just how she sees it. She wants it to be that simple, she wants it to make sense - she doesn't say it like that though. I think she's misleading already vulnerable people and I don't like it.

(But I like you Clinte, please don't take personally. You've given us an interesting topic to discuss )