[thickntired]

Hi,

Last night I couldn't sleep and they were showing all kinds of scary movies for Halloween. I watched a movie on FMX called "The Roommate." Think Single White Female but about college students in a dorm. Anyway the ill girl runs around obsessing about her roommate, maiming, threatening & killing people, cutting herself etc. The scared roommate goes through the girls things in their dorm and finds a botttle of pills. She looks the pills up online and they are Zyprexa!!! In the end the girl is trying to kill 3 ppl and ends up dead. I was totally offended by the whole stupid D film. I talked to my sponsor and she said she was watching a TV sitcom where the girl started acting all crazy and her husband said she was bipolar. I think mainstream media sets up an awful depiction of bipolar, and it seems to be occuring more often. I hear ppl say so and so is acting bipolar or the weather is so bipolar etc. WTH?

Since when was bipolar such a popular adjective

[Moose72]

I've heard people say that- even when they don't know I'm bipolar. Its the new word meaning "batshit crazy". Off your gourd. You know. Just whacko.

[BlueInanna]

I heard a guy talking about how someone "went all bipolar!" Unfortunately he was a client and I had to bite my tongue. I did probe for details though, apparently the guy was yelling at someone. Nice... that would put 90+% of population as bp , idiots.

A good depiction, decent, imho, was Clare Danes in Homeland. Her bp was not the focus, but a side story. Really love that show! She's totally going to hook up with Quinn = meowww. :P

It's not okay. I'm glad you posted this, because it's not okay! One Mental Health Aide said to me, "there is no more stigma against mental illness." How can people not see it. When we have to live this everyday we can't help but see it. Fighting this type of stigma is more than draining it's demoralizing and wrong. It frustrates me.

I went to a GP once for a back injury and he asked what medications I was on. As I listed them he backed away from me until he was right up against the opposite wall. He stood by the door as if he might have to escape. I was there for my back. I was not unstable or high or low. Just hurt. After that I felt emotionally hurt as well. Like I was a Monster. Maybe he had only seen Bipolars in the movies.

[bronzeowl]

I hate that movie. It is so offensive concerning mental illness that it's not even funny. Or, rather, the least bit entertaining. What freaking sucks is you see this in movies so often. The mentally ill being the villain. Which, okay, does happen. But if you believe the media, it happens all the time. When statistically, they're more likely to be the victim.

In that movie, I think we were supposed to assume she was bipolar and that it's such a bad thing ( I remember the roommate's reaction to finding out -_- ). Seriously? If she was, they got it all wrong. So I'm sure the writer has never opened a Psychology book or known someone who was bipolar a day in his life.

[SillyKitty]

I also like Claire Danes in Homeland.

[Zabine]

Just last night I was sitting at a table of associates and they brought up someone "going bipolar." I remember being in jr a friend of mine used all the psych terms to describe people in a negative way. It hurts my heart.

[Andysmom]

I had a woman in my women's support group talk about a friend of hers acting bipolar. I called her on it and let her know that I was bipolar and that it isn't something to joke about. Very annoying.

[ehWOOblah]

Another one that gives an AWFUL depiction of bipolar disorder is "Smiley". It's chalk full of crappy internet culture cliches as well, for extra added annoyance. The side plot of main character is that she's a "recovering bipolar" i guess, since she tells the doctor she was previously treated with lithium for the disorder, but is "better now" and has "weened herself off" of the stuff. Then of course, the horror parts of the movie continue, and it's made so we're to think "maybe she's still crazy!"