[sme49]

"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.

[faerie_moon_x]

This is why I am a firm believer in saying "I have bipolar" and not that "I am bipolar." It's the same reason we don't use the term "diabetic" any more (I work in a diabetes education clinic.) People have diabetes, they are not diabetic. If anything is diabetic, it would be the broken down body functioning. (Like, my pancreas is diabetic, but I have diabetes.) I don't know, that makes more sense to me.

I know there are people who disagree with me on this one. But I have bipolar disorder, but my name is X and I'm a wife, a mom, a writer, a singer, an artist, a secretary, and I just happen to do all these things despite the fact that I have bipolar..... that doesn't mean it defines me as a person.

anyway,I know people disagree but that's what I think. I think we all are who we are despite this illness and even if it went away tomorrow we'd still be who we are. Sure it may shape some of our experiences, but how many people can say they aren't shaped by experiencing chemo or having to test their blood glucose 3+ times a day, it still doesn't make them the illness. It just colors their lives.

[wildchild r]

Kudo's DarkHeart.X.. like I tell my MC Sisters..You are Goddessess ..remember that

[Clinte89]

I agree lumping people into crowds isn't cool and is kind of demeaning. Sp? I don't like being referred to as a bipolar cause at this point I'm so stable I doubt I have bp.

[gary290]

We are so much more than a diagnosis. We can't let it define who we are. I accept that I have a psychiatric diagnosis but I am a human being first and foremost.

[venusss]

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

I didn't know most of the capitalist countries were bipolar (and those outside WISHED they were bipolar, at least what shopping concerns).

And as for "I have" I don't like it. It's not something i posses. It's indeed part of me. But why did we do away with manic depressive? Bipolar is good term to describe the dynamics of the world during the Cold war times. It doesn't describe emotional states at all. THe person who wants to sleep with IDF girls and buy shoes is the same person as the one who wants to die at times. (and sometimes one buys shoes because it beats dying).

I am not for political correctness. But I am against "stupid". And as post-modernist, I am against definitive statements. Especially from somebody who might be a doctor, but never wanted to fly to Tel Aviv at random, and doesn't want to jump of high building just 'cause. I don't wanna have somebody who never spend the night pondering the world is real and deconstructing world and wondering why languages tell me what to do. I don't wanna somebody who is happy with their boring job and never got urges to "do something... different" because they were certain they will die if nothing happens to decide what is good for me and what am I like.

[faerie_moon_x]

I think a lot of it has to do with the constrictions of the human language. "I am" says I am made of it, "I have" means I posses it.... we need more words or something. "This is part of me but does not fully encompass my being, nor do I wish for it, but yet I must live with everyday." What word means that?

[Anika.]

I dunno DH, maybe " I deal with.." " I experience..".

Some people don't think words matter to much, but words have a lot of power. It's a large part of how we communicate.. but what are we communicating with them?

Maybe part of it starts with us. We do use the words bipolars and stuff like that here a lot. Maybe we actually helped start it in the first place. Just like the word "normals" gets used here a lot too.

I know I am guilty of saying stuff like this. Maybe I can work on my own wording, or try to be more aware of my own speech.

[BipolaRNurse]

I think that's all any of us can do, Anika. I know I'm a lot more sensitive to language now than before I was diagnosed---I hate it when people say things like "I'm gonna go bipolar on that biatch!" or "What is the matter with you, you're all, like, bipolar or something". It's only ignorance, but such people have NO idea what this illness is really like and they shouldn't make light of it.

As for me, I use the terms "I have bipolar" and "I am bipolar" interchangeably, but not "I'm a bipolar". The latter just seems to objectify the person with BP, and Lord knows we get enough of that from the rest of the world as it is.

[venusss]

I think that's all any of us can do, Anika. I know I'm a lot more sensitive to language now than before I was diagnosed---I hate it when people say things like "I'm gonna go bipolar on that biatch!" or "What is the matter with you, you're all, like, bipolar or something". It's only ignorance, but such people have NO idea what this illness is really like and they shouldn't make light of it.

funnily enough, I don't mind this. But use the words "fascist" and "communist" in meaning "something I don't like" and you are in for a history lesson from me.

(Czechs don't throw around the word bipolar that much actually. Not that we are politically correct... but we just don't use this term as synonym of b!tchy).