television portrayals of bipolar disorder

So I'm happy that so many TV shows have tackled mental illness issues with their main characters, but I wonder sometimes. This post has spoilers for Homeland, Rookie Blue, ER, Law and Order SVU, and Black Box. Trigger tagged, just in case.

Rookie Blue is the one I'm watching now. One of the characters was introduced as hiding her bipolar diagnosis from her employers near the beginning of Season 3. She's a cop. I'm on Season 3 Episode 11 right now and she just showed up late seeming really disheveled, tense, talking fast, stayed up all night, spouting some weird theory. Of course I know where this is going.

It seems like an accurate enough portrayal of hypo/mania so far but it's only been a couple of minutes. I'm waiting for the episode to develop to see what happens to her. It reminds me of my first manic episode, where I showed up to a therapy group late, interrupted, dropped my coat on the floor, spilled all the change in my pockets, apologized five times, motormouthed about why I was late in a really rambly, tangential way. I had the same shifty, tense, disheveled appearance. It actually tipped off my therapist that I was manic.

And then there's Homeland. I actually love Homeland's portrayal of bipolar disorder. It's about a CIA agent with bipolar disorder, and I do love Claire Danes. She has a manic break in Season 1 episode 11 that I could relate to (at one point she's standing in a hospital hallway shouting "My kingdom for a green pen!!") and the depression afterwards is very relatable too, at least for me. And the way she has to manage it later episodes and seasons and the way she is sometimes compliant and occasionally she gets carried away is just the perfect balance I think (ha ha balance)

And then there's Black Box. I hated the first few episodes of this show with a fiery burning passion. The main character is a bipolar neuroscientist, but the way she was portrayed in the first few episodes was that she was childish, extremely irresponsible. I hated her. I hated how she made bipolar seem to the public. Going off her meds at the slightest provocation, having sex with everyone, lying, being INCREDIBLY CAPITAL LETTERS DRAMATIC etc. It was like they took every stereotype of bipolar and took it to the extreme. As the season went on, they stopped focusing on bipolar and the character became much more human and believable. Even though I still kind of dislike the show, I can't stop watching it, so I guess it's doing its job.

ER is the second last one I can think of off the top of my head. Abby Lockhart's mother, played by Sally Field, makes an appearance in a couple of seasons and she has bipolar disorder. I haven't watched these episodes in years, but I found the portrayal to be pretty decent. I remember her mania to be very similar to how Rookie Blue is portraying it, and I remember Abby and I think either Carter or Luka took a road trip to find her after she'd gone off on a manic flight, and she's depressed and locked in a hotel room, so they drive her back to Chicago and on the way she overdoses but no one notices so she's just sleeping in the car and they barely realize in time. I remember that struck me hard.

There's an episode of Law and Order SVU where Stabler's daughter has a manic break and I thought that was well done. I wasn't as impressed with how they portrayed his mother, who was also bipolar. I didn't relate, but that doesn't mean it was bad, because there are different presentations of bipolar that are still accurate.

Not television, but on youtube there are several videos, some the entire play, of the Broadway musical Next To Normal, which is about a mother with bipolar disorder and how it affects the whole family. I absolutely love it, but I'm biased when it comes to musical theatre. This is their performance on the Tony Awards: It's introduced by Princess Leia! Who is also bipolar! There are some mistakes but that's why I love live theatre.

It seems the majority of bipolar characters are women. I would love to see a bipolar male character.

What do you think of television portrayals of bipolar disorders? Do you have a favourite I didn't mention?

So as the Rookie Blue episode progresses, the bipolar character went nuts and is stalking some guy she thinks is a predator and he was found assaulted and it might have been her.

You know what would be GROUNDBREAKING? A bipolar character who was just NORMAL like EVERYONE ELSE and who DOESN'T eventually go crazy. It makes the public assume that we'll always eventually go nuts. Maybe we do. I don't know.

Haha I feel the same way about Black Box.. I feel like they portray bipolar in the wrong light and I feel she's a bad actress lol. But I can't stop watching either! XD

Me too...not sure why I even watched the 2nd episode after the quality of the first! I think it is mostly Grey's Anatomy withdrawal that is making me turn to this stuff.

The season-ender of Black Box is on tomorrow night. We know she's beginning to decompensate; the question is how bad and what stereotypical behavior she's going to portray.

Oh yeah.... I think it's a 2 hour episode too!

I wonder how will blackbox end... i hate the beginning. Only towards the end of season they actually started showing Cat being passionate about her WORK (as opposed to randomly dancing and having SEXY SEX)... Not sure why I sticked with it the whole season (well, I watched it to lol over the jazz soundtrack and the whole stereotypical thing...). The character development took forever in the show. The way they portrayed her bipolar was ridic.

I just started watching Homeland. It's good show, but I have to take it slow. So... triggering for some many reasons.

re: Black Box. I've seen Kelly Reilly in other shows/films. She is in a movie called Shell Shock (Triage in Europe). She plays the pregnant wife of a war journalist. She shows utter fury when she learns of his fate. She doesn't have that baby doll, wimpy annoying voice that she has in Black Box. So I guess that is the way she was directed in Black Box? The script? My husband is an actor (with 2 "day jobs") & he's had directors who said things like "give me a little Betty Boop voice" But it's still really annoying. She dips her head down like she's 4 years old, covers up her hands with her sleeves. Etc
One of my pet peeves is for people who have manic-depression/bipolar disorder to be called Bipolar. As in "She is bipolar." You don't say of a person with cancer "She is Cancer." So it would be great if that could change. Have the characters on Black Box say "She has bipolar disorder."
And although many people who have this disorder (& others, like seizures) can be extremely creative, we can also fail to finish college degrees, quit jobs one after another, mess up relationships. In other words, we are not all genius neuroscientists or artists or musicians.
I personally did dance a Lot before I got onto meds. (even now, to get out of depressions, I put on dance music & that helps)
I often worked 12-20 hours days (at a Police Dept/Detective Unit) & I'd go out dancing for 3 hours with friends 3 nights a week (or 5 nights a week). Dance to exhaust myself so I could get a few hours' sleep. Or just go without sleep for weeks, months. I got high evaluation markings in my jobs until I was 45 & totally fell apart (I wasn't diagnosed until I was 45).
I was extremely attractive (b4 the meds made me gain tons of weight) But I didn't realize it! My husband tells me that if I walked into a room, everyone stopped talking & stared at me. I wondered why so many men (& women) were always trying to get me to date them, giving me gifts etc. I sometimes think that when we are in manias, we are more attractive. But I never lost control & had sex with random strangers. I Did fall in love obsessively. Thought I would Die if this or that guy didn't love me back. Luckily, I ended up with a great husband & we've been together for 28 years. But we have had some super rough spots.
I was never hospitalized. I could Always talk to therapists & convince them "Oh, I don't need meds, I am OK without being hospitalized." But I should have been, definitely, hospitalized 3 or 4 times in my life.
Black Box annoys me so much because the actress playing the neuroscientist flips out, has 3 days of going totally "nuts" and then properly diagnoses someone with a complex brain condition, treats it & they walk away cured. If your brain is so messed up that you drive down a highway with your head hanging out of the car window, then pull over, roll around in the mud & run through the woods with your shirt off----there is NO way you can go back to your job a few days later & heal someone of X weird brain disorder.
I know there are super high functioning people who have bipolar disorder. But for the most part, we struggle. A lot!
I really wanted to like Black Box. There need to be more shows that realistically protray people who have bipolar, schizophrenia & other disorders. But Black Box isn't doing that.
I don't have cable so I haven't seen Homeland.

I wondered that, about whether she was directed to act that way. I haven't seen Kelly Reilly in anything else but I'm going to look it up now.

As for the "she is bipolar" thing, I've learned to leave it up to the individual person to decide. I have friends in the autism community and they are quite vocal about claiming the identity and being referred to as "autistic" instead of "has autism", because the people championing the "has autism" movement are parents and are trying to eliminate their identity. I guess they rubbed off on me, because I don't really mind people saying that I "am bipolar". I see myself as "am bipolar" though I think when I tell people I usually say "I have bipolar disorder".

What's weird is when I saw the first episode, I initially thought Kelly Reilly was really hot, (I may have been hypomanic) but now I just see her as annoying. So now I really want to see her in another role.

I just started watching the movie Flight because Kelly Reilly is in it and HOLY **** IS IT EVER INTENSE!!! I don't know if it's because I'm manic so EVERYTHING seems kind of hopped up but whoa.

Also I like Kelly Reilly in this, maybe she can act after all.

I AM bipolar. I have red hair, too many cats and too little on money on my account.

I am liberal, bisexual, Czech, bipolar.

Just my prefered terminology.

Say "has bipolar" wouldn't improve Black Box all that much, really.

I have never seen black box and I have only watched pieces of Homeland - I tend not to like how Bipolar Disorder is portrayed on television and/or in movies.

I am, however, an extremely loyal L&O SVU watcher and have seen the episodes about Stabler's daughter being diagnosed and further episodes after that. I will definitely admit that I could relate to Kathleen - her "eccentric" behavior before and while she was in the hospital. I was very similar at first (there's nothing wrong with me, I'm just having fun, etc...). I also was not bothered by the way it was portrayed in Stabler's mother. As I have learned over the years, while the diagnosis may be bipolar, everyone is different and it can manifest very differently in different people. I have to say, I appreciated that Kathleen did decide to agree to treatment and it is evident in following episodes. For those who are not as gung-ho about the show as I am - Kathleen goes on to live a "normal" (forgive me for the term) life. Personally I think this sheds light on the fact that when in treatment/with help people with bipolar disorder are not out of their minds all of the time. I think that is one of the biggest misconceptions that people hold.

There is another show that has not been mentioned, probably because it does not always specifically address mental illness but has anyone seen Without a Trace? There is one specific episode that gets me every time. It is about a girl with bipolar disorder who disappears for a few days. As the show flashes back to the days before she disappears you see the progression of a manic episode - a truly manic episode and how her family struggles to understand what is happening. In the interest of not writing a full novel I will skip to the end, when they find her. I do not know if this is appropriate to post since I am very new to the community, but let's just say she crashed as the depression took hold - and the higher your fly, the harder you crash...They found her at home, in her parents' bath tub (that's all I am going to say).

I found this particular episode eye opening, not just for me but also for the families of people who have bipolar disorder. When I am depressed, I have a very hard time explaining what is bothering me (mostly I don't even know) to my husband, my friends, etc. I think that they just don't understand how bad it can get - especially when I hear "just get over it" or "why are you so miserable?" My husband watched this episode with me once and I think it opened his eyes a bit about how extreme the swings can be at times and just what can happen without support and caring - even if you don't understand.

Sorry for the novel, but reading through this thread I thought Without a Trace should get a mention.

I saw the first 4 or 5 episodes of Black Box but finally quit. I found the whole
setup and characters stereotypical and not convincing not only the main one.
I don't know if it gets better later. Reading about Homeland made me curious
to start watching it.

Sharon on "The Young and the Restless" has bipolar. I wasn't watching it when she was diagnosed and manic. I know she burned down Victor's house. Since i tuned in the portrayal has been okay, with Sharon taking meds and seeing a therapist. She was being gaslighted but thought she was psychotic and had ECT and lost some memories. What i've seen of it has been fairly sensitive.

It hasn't been a big part of the story since i tuned in but it's nice to see bipolar referenced in such a matter-of-fact way on such a mainstream show. Does anyone else know what the earlier portrayal was like?

I also like the way bipolar is treated in what little i've seen of "Homeland." The discrete episodes of mania and depression are like my own experience. I'm happy with what i've seen of "Homeland" because the way bipolar is shown in "Silver Linings Playbook" doesn't resemble my experience at all.

A short-lived medical drama, "Private Practice," had a bipolar character. She was the sister of Taye Diggs. She had a psychotic mania where she was ranting about the stars and fell thru a window. Her performance of depression was also quite good. The actress was excellent. It was unrealistic, tho, because she ends up living in an institution, which doesn't happen these days.

This post prompted me to watch Homeland... I've watched 2 seasons in a week and love it! I don't feel like they overplayed her bipolar, in fact, I could actually relate (although Carrie is a much more fearless woman in general than I am, haha!) and it still portrayed her as someone who is actually really intelligent and driven. They haven't just made her out to be some 'crazy person' like society might think we are. To me, it doesn't show a lot of depression, but that may just be my opinion because my lows can last for a long time..
I would like to hear opinions from someone who doesn't have bipolar, because to me, I just understand her and for the most part, see it as 'normal'.

Silver lining... a bit cliché but a good movie to catch a laugh with some serious moments

well, finnished all three season of Homeland......... and I like

I think the portrayal of bipolar is quite realistic (yay for showing a BP person being obsessed about something else than having random sex). And kudos for not beating the reader with the label as excuse for all unreasonable action Carrie made.

And I could so relate to how Carrie "needed" a green pen. When I was in manic episode while writting my thesis I would make lots and lots of flow charts... and I do often carry a notebook with me to jot down "totally important" ideas.