:P Yes, I'm bipolar

In my English class for the final year project one kid in my class wanted to do a report about how the failed mental health system was contributing to shootings and mass killings...

It bugged me.

No, I'm not a se offender, no, I will not kill anyone, no, I'm not going to shoot up the school, YES I'm bipolar.

There are a lot of problems in the mental health system but .... that's not meaning that everyone is going to shoot up the world!

rant done

Lilly

Good for you! That crap irritates me.

In college, we had to do clinical presentations on a mental illness (I'm a social worker), and of course I chose bipolar disorder.

I was manic and unmedicated at the time, so my presentation was all over the place. I finally disclosed to my fellow classmates that I was bipolar and they got to see first-hand what the symptoms looked like. I think it really normalized it for them.

I was at a seminar on suicide prevention last year through work. They were talking about how it's a cry for help and that it should be given.... which sort of annoys me. When I've been suicidal, no, I don't want help - it's when I've finally decided to help myself out. (stupid yes, but it's how my brain works!)

At one point they wanted input from everyone there about why some people might not disclose, or why people would choose that route. A lot of people there sort of looked at me funny when I said "Sometimes it's not about wanting to make things better for yourself. You've given up on that and sometimes you just think it's the best solution for everyone else, because you view yourself as the problem. So you wouldn't tell anyone because that would be making you even more of a problem."

That's how it's been for me.... but it was rather triggering to see how many people there truly didn't get it, at all. I sorta felt like I'd outed myself.

It makes me furious when people use stereotypes to describe people with mental illness. When Brian Williams called Ariel Castro "The Face of Mental Illness" I just lost it. It was never even proven that Castro was mentally ill. And even if he was, his illness goes so far beyond the norm that it just doesn't even make sense to say what Williams did. Irresponsible reporters like Williams just prolong and amplify the stigma of mental illness and it makes me angry. Most of the mentally ill people I've met are good people. They wouldn't hurt anyone else. Movies, the media, and the news are giving people a totally wrong impression about what mental illness actually is, and I have no idea what one person like me can do about it. Organizations like NAMI are trying to help, but they have almost no voice when compared to national news reporters and the like.

/rant

NAMI may be trying to help but by pushing the medical model and forced treatment, they push the stigma. They reinforce the opinion that we really are different then normals, need others to decide for us and can be dangerous.

I work with NAMI in my job, and I have thought the exact same thing. Spot on!

I facilitated a nami support group for almost 5 yrs and though I agree it did reinforce that we are somehow 'different' and I don't really like that, I never got the feeling of being told others needed to make my decisions or that I or the others might be dangerous. I left this past spring because an incidence happened that heightened my anxiety, and that pushed me into an episode, my dr and I agreed it was best to leave. Well, I couldn't make myself go back. I guess I buy into the medical model though or I wouldn't agree to take so much medication.

It seems like the public has two views of bipolar. One side thinks we're just moody and need to get over it (I used to be that way). The other side thinks we're batshit crazy and need drugs and a babysitter. Like any other generalization, there are elements of the truth in both of them, but they are, on the whole, false.

I guess I don't worry about the stigma, mostly because it is the problem of the stigmatizer and not mine. If someone wants to hold me at arm's length because they think I am batshit crazy, then I understand. In fact there are times when I am batshit crazy. I'm not likely to shoot up a school or step in front of a train, but if someone thinks I will, then I just acknowledge and move on.