"Hey, did you read the story in the news about the homeless bipolars?"

"We are starting a support group for bipolars and you're invited... because, well, you're bipolar".

"I'm going to meet a few fellow bipolars for lunch today, would you like to come along?"

"OK, listen up! If you have cancer, line up behind Bill. If you have depression, line up behind George. If you have diabetes, line up behind Karen. Bipolars -- well, just do what you want."

"Yeah, but there are a lot of bipolars out there that use this forum".

"I have plenty of friends that are bipolars."

"Those darn bipolars, I swear they're driving me crazy!"

"Bipolars, especially, like to shop for stuff they don't need."

"I think we ought to give bipolars a break".

"Bipolars are going to take over the world, Frank!"

The frontal lobe of my brain doesn't work as good as it used to so I'm having a hard time trying to figure this thing out with the use of the word "bipolars". It's being used in a new way that's not correct. It's very stigmatizing, IMO, and I hate stigmatizers. With an S. Plural.

How would it be if we referred to people with cancer as "cancers"? "There are a lot of cancers out there that are draining our healthcare resources". "Cancers, man, those people really have it bad".

The nomenclature in all this is killing me. Our society would never in a million years lump people suffering from cancer into one glob and call them "cancers". But those of us who have bipolar disorder, and those people who try to help us, have started referring to us as "bipolars" and I don't like it one bit.

We're all different people. Please don't put us in this one defined category and call us "bipolars". It's bad for our stigma.