Quote:
Originally Posted by Creative1onder
So are you the illness then? Is that what you are?an illness. Nice to feel you are an external label. Is it your fault of character thats led to it? Do you think people are themselves when they are in severe depression or severe mania? Peoples thoughts and behaviours are affected by bipolar. So those who have cancer, are they suffering and battling with a serious health condition or is it linked to their personality? Bipolar has mental and physical characteristics which different kinds of people experience who have it, regardless of their personality.
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were you responding to me? I said I am my bipolar (as a condition, not an illness) and I am more than it. Much of my adult life, my choices, my behavior, my personality traits, would be inscrutable without it.
You asked if "people are themselves when thehy are in severe depression or severe mania" and I would say absolutely. Those reveal aspects of themselves, just as any state we are in exposes a facet of the soul.
You asked if battling cancer is linked to their personality? Certainly a personality must respond to a life-threatening situation, and will be changed after the fight is through.
You seem concerned to differentiate bipolar from personality. That is more difficult to do than with cancer, however, since it is a condition of the brain. Of the people I know who have bipolar, there are some personality resemblences among them.
Personally, I don't view bipolar as an illness though if untreated it can become an illness. When it is maintained it is just a mental condition. I don't consider myself mentally ill.