Quote:
Originally Posted by mgran
I was initially with psychotic depression, then bipolar, finally schizoaffective. I hate it when people laugh around and say, "oh, he's psycho" or "she's schizo". It's just not true!
People don't understand what these mental illnesses are like unless they've direct experience, either as a sufferer, or because a family member has it. People think depression is feeling blue, bipolar is simply mood swings, and schizophrenia et al are someone acting a bit erratically. Of course bipolar and schizo diseases are also used as a term of abuse, as is psychotic.
It's a huge pity that the world is so ill educated.
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I've had both psychotic depressions and psychotic manic episodes during episodes of my bipolar I disorder. People who say they feel "a little bipolar" have never been involuntarily committed, restrained, forcibly sedated or had themselves peeled off of bridges by the police because they thought that unseen enemies were commanding them to act. Bipolar disorder is not funny. It's deadly. I wish the uneducated public would understand that. We do not choose this disease it chooses us. All we can do is our part in trying to manage it. That doesn't mean we whine. It means we understand our disorder, its symptoms, its treatment, and we take active responsibility for our role in managing it.