Just listen! Prejudice?

Do you (ever) believe you'd have been succesful in achieving your goals while manic if people would just have listened to what you were saying instead of judging you (and what you said and did) based on how you said it, if only they'd listened?

I think so. I still believe the manic us is right and "they" are (more often) wrong—in essence—even though the risks might be too high and the personal sacrifices too many and too great (and bless those that want to protect us from ourselves).

"No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher." --unknown (at least to me)

Being right is still whatever it is whether I am manic, depressed or whatever, and people ultimately "listen" or not in proportion to their personal perceptions that "the risks might be too high and the personal sacrifices too many and too great". Being manic has variously helped as well as hindered at times, but its symptoms certainly do seem to hinder more than to help.

And at some point they can't understand you anymore, but to some extent and with some people it's also due to a lack of trying.

People should be less risk-averse in general.

But mania isn't indefensible. There should be more acceptance.

I can make people uncomfortable when manic but I feel their discomfort is not productive or needed. I believe I have valuable insights when manic sometimes and do feel the messages I'm sometimes compulsively directed to spread have immeasurable value. I am being instructed to believe it's all delusional and I go back and forth on my acceptance that it is.

Until today and this thread I have never pondered the matter of manic in relation to this kind of thing, but I do try to discern whether or where delusion might be involved. One of my daughters has in the past called me "the smoking prophet" (with "smoking" simply being a matter of irony), but I have never considered myself a prophet in any kind of way beyond the ability of virtually almost anyone else.

Yeah, I suppose I see myself as a prophet of sorts at times but it's a complicated mess to try and explain. I see other people as having the same ability towards the same insights I have. As a matter of fact, the messages I speak are the undeniable truths we all know deep inside. It's all common sense to me. It sounds a bit grandiose I admit but not all things are how they appear on the surface. And history teaches us that just because the masses believe something, doesn't make it true or just. The masses have committed horrible atrocities and gotten away with it because we are led to believe that because a lot of people agree on something, it therefore becomes true. This is an illusion. Likewise I'm told that because I believe in things others do not, I'm delusional. It's more complicated than all that from my point of view.

My husband and I respect each other enough to listen and help with ideas no matter if we're manic or not. There's nothing fun about being off handedly dismissed no matter what.