Jokes

How do you deal when people make jokes about people "being bipolar" or "have ocd"? I have had a few people make jokes lately and I haven't known how to respond so I usually give a little laugh and change the subject. I never want to make a deal or give a life story but just saying that it really isn't something to joke about or take lightly seems a little *****y sometimes.

I doubt these people would be so quick to tell their "jokes" if they had a mental illness to deal with. Rise above it, as you do. People like that are ignorant fools.

I hate it when people do that too. I even have a friend who does it around me and she knows I have bp. Sigh.

id say i feel....an inner twitch of annoyance that the fact remains ppl will never understand the reality of it. But then i just brush it off because im not sure that will change. Unless you deal with personally its almost impossible to wrap your mind around. We all just view life from our own expeirience and some of us can see in many shades and some cannot. ITs a gift in that way although a curse in others lol

Im not thrilled when people use flippant jokes about mental health issues..

But... I have learned to pick and choose my battles.. only a couple people in real life know that I have bipolar. I am not ashamed I am just a private person. I am not going to stand on rooftops and try to change the world.. But.... I will sit here and offer any help and support I can to anyone struggling with how to have a life while Bipolar is part of it..

I don't say much usually. When one of my cousin's daughters posted something that was really offensive on facebook several years ago I did contact my cousin and ask if she'd seen the post, explained the offensiveness, and said I'd be happy to explain to her daughter why it was so offensive but that I felt the parent should come before I said anything. And since it had been made a lot worse by the boyfriend I really felt the parents were the ones who needed to handle it (Plus the kid has never met me that she remembers and so she would just take it as "crazy woman" ramblings).

I do try my very best to not use the words crazy/insane/OCD/etc to describe real life functioning. I know I'm not always 100% on that but I do try. I figure that leading by quiet example lets me feel like I expressed myself but not being quite so public about why I feel the way I do.

I do not follow the "people first" terminology with regards to myself and bipolar. I carefully followed it through my career with my patients and probably would if talking about someone else but I call myself bipolar and I feel that bipolar IS something that I AM, no matter what people would prefer to hear me say. I don't hold that to be true for anyone else, but for me personally it is what I am comfortable with.

a priest a rabbi and a bipolar entered a bar,,, oh wait not that kind of joke...sorry hahahahahahahahah...

My therapist asked me how my "insania mania" was going this week. I thought it was pretty funny. Otherwise, when people devise insults flippantly or otherwise rudely, it annoys me. Since I am rather intense and exceedingly passionate, I am tempted to lash out at them but the reserved, reputed side of me is usually assumed. If someone provoked me (intentionally or unintentionally) while manic, however, the outcome may slightly diverge from the reserved, reputed side of me!

I usually don't say anything. I wish I could say I fight the stigma for all of us when the time arises, but I try to stay away from topics, especially if they apply to me. I shared with a close friend my bipolar diagnosis, and do you know what she said after I said, "I was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder" ?

"I get so bipolar when I'm hot."


....seriously? SERIOUSLY?!

People that don't have MI can't ever truly understand, even those who are close to us and care about us. Patience with ignorance is how I treat it.

It doesn't bother me at all. I even make jokes about it myself every now and then. Knowing that no one knows that I'm bipolar makes it fun. Some of my students use the word bipolar without understanding what it really means, but they are young. The other day one of them wondered if Holden Caulfield was bipolar. I gave it some thought, and came to the conclusion that he was probably in a mixed state.