I'm in a very pensive mood. I'm going to post some more insightful threads in hopes they will generate some great comments.

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Does it bother you to see so many people uneducated about bipolar disorder? What about mental illness in general? Share your experiences!

I think bipolar disorder is one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses. An overwhelming amount of people genuinely believe that bipolar disorder is characterized by rapid, unpredictable mood swings that occur every few minutes. While it is certainly possible to have ultra ultra rapid cycling like that, 99% of people with bipolar disorder aren't ultra ultra rapid cyclers. That is a very rare case.

I just don't understand why our schools fail to educate us on mental illnesses? We have biology class and we learn about cancer, AIDS, and even uncommon conditions like Guillain-Barré syndrome, but we never learn about mental illness... at all. It's a subject matter that is totally excluded from school curriculums unless you choose to take a psychology class... and even then, not all schools offer classes on psychology! Usually psychology is only offered at the university level.

[pirilin]

Our President has allocated an additional 500 million dollars to help with mental illness.
( How much was the budget before?.)
Divide that into 50 states and we are talking 10 million per state. Which will be how much per county?. I'm terrible at math, but something tell me it's not enough.

[otherg]

I'm with you. At least some basic education about mental illness in high school should be a part of the curriculum. It should include treatments, statistics, current research,etc...