i 'have' Vs I 'am'

Woo-hoo!

But you may say...

“I’m diabetic.”
“I’m depressed.”

Though one would not say, “I’m cancerous.” That sounds more like a warning of an infectious disease.

I favor making the passive voice active once again.



***look who bought the myth***

Never heard of “I’m diabetic”
A little sway off-topic, but I just thought of emotions, too.
You can say “I am angry” or “I feel angry”.
When you say you feel angry, you detach yourself from the emotion and appear cooler

In some ways having these conditions do define me just like so many other things. They are a piece in the puzzle that is me. Why is that a bad thing? Would I choose to be bipolar? No. But I am and it is a defining characteristic when I'm depressed, manic or in the hospital. It's also part of what I feel makes me unique and special.

I feel the most important thing is that you don't decide for other people. I wouldn't say to someone else: you are bipolar, because I don't know if that is comfortable for them. But for me? Go for it! :-)

Really? I've heard plenty of people say, "I'm diabetic".

Well put and I completely agree. Being bipolar...it's something I am all of the time. It's always present for me and I doubt it'll ever go away.

I have anxiety. I have depression. I have MS.

I have these conditions, they do not have me.

Oh, but they can. Sneaky little b*******.

I think both terms are appropriate. Actually many mental illnesses do define what the person is like in an overall sense while others don't & are only caused by situations the person it temporararaly dealing with (which may not be so temporary at the time or they wouldn't get the dx.)

I think we need to accept whech ever a person themselves identifies with....

Really, people say "I am gay", not "I have gay" & many people are born with the mental illnesses they have too.

I think it makes a difference whether it's a noun or an adjective. "Bipolar" can be either one.

People say "I am depressed," or "I have depression," but not "I am depression."
People say "I am diabetic," or "I have diabetes," but not "I am diabetes."

Etc.

I guess people don't know about grammar. And actually it is a little weird that people say they have cancer when it is ongoing but if they are in remission or cured, they ARE a cancer survivor.

For me it does not matter if people say have or am. For me it is the same. Like the example in french that being hungry is expressed as having hunger.

For me it doesn't sound any different. I'm nearsighted but I don't feel saying it like that defines my whole personality. I don't say I have nearsightedness.

Depends on my mood and state of mind at the time.
Usually I will say "I AM" but, if I'm worried about being judged for it I may say "I HAVE".
I recently was informed of a diagnosis that had been kept from me for whatever reason. For a long time I was sure that I was Bipolar as my previous psychiatrist pointed out once as well as schizophrenic.
The diagnosis revealed to me was that I am Schizoaffective which from what I've read sounds an awful lot like Schizophrenia and Bipolar Dissorder combined with additional symptoms so, if my previous perceptions were incorrect, I wasn't far off of the mark.
Still though, I can't rule out that there is a possibility of having one or both of the previous two as well since people can and sometimes do have more than one similar condition.
I prefer "I AM" though because to me that is part of facing reality and being honest with one's self.

The wording doesn't matter to me much but my default is usually I have rather than I am. I can see both sides of this issue and I think both are valid. Use what wording is right for you.

I only use "have" because I personally think the "am" sounds like bipolar disorder is an identity. I am not a mental illness. I also believe that other illnesses where people sometimes use "am" should be switched to using the "have", like instead of saying "I am diabetic", I think "I have diabetes" is a better choice. To me, using "am" is almost like self stigmatization. Perhaps the people that prefer the "am" don't think of it that way, but others that hear it may be influenced to stigmatize it because of that usage.

Yes, "I have" for the above reasons.

I don’t think it really matters to me. I usually say ‘I suffer from Bipolar.’

But you would say I am diabetic, I am depressed. Bipolar works as an adjective and depression doesn't.

It just comes down to what part of speech bipolar is, which is an adjective. The noun is disorder, as in I have bipolar disorder. You don't "have" an adjective; you only "have" a noun.

It's easy to see in the examples given. The reason you don't say " I am diabetes" is just because diabetes is a noun. Instead you say "I am diabetic" because diabetic is an adjective--it's describing you, a noun. "You are bipolar--an adjective. Whereas you have bipolar disorder. That's the reason "I have bipolar" sounds so awkward. It's not grammatically correct.

I use the terms interchangeably. The term bipolar is most often used as a descriptor, so the subheading on my blog says "I Hate Being Bipolar. It's AWESOME!" However, I've noticed that in more formal conversation, like when I'm talking with a new healthcare provider, I'll say "I have bipolar one disorder" rather than "I'm bipolar". Maybe it's my way of discouraging them from stigmatizing me...I've never really analyzed it to be honest.

If one wants to call themselves or others "bipolar" as an adjective, shouldn't they somehow add the state of stable to the mix? I am "of the three type mood" kind of person. One is not only bipolar as in depressed and manic. Are you never ever ever stable? If not, then saying "I am bipolar" may work out fine if you are never stable. Saying "I have bipolar disorder" clearly states that you have a specific kind of disorder.

I have nothing against using the word "bipolar" as an adjective, but not as a description of a person. If you want to use "bipolar" to describe moods, fine. Tendencies, fine.

I would like to point out that "bipolar" as a word is an adjective. Therefore, I am bipolar. It's the same as saying am tall. See, "I" is the subject of your sentence. "Am" is a linking verb which connects the subject with some form of adjective. (Adjectives are describing words for those who don't know their grammar.) "Bipolar" is the adjective linked to the subject.

To complete the picture, I should bring up "disorder" which is a noun. With that it is correct to say, "I have bipolar disorder." In this case "bipolar" is again an adjective, but here describes "disorder".

By itself, "I have bipolar" is grammatically incorrect.

I dont really pay attention to which I say. It doesnt matter much to me. I feel like I HAVE it but also in a way I AM it- in the same way that I AM creative- quiet- female- ect. It is a part of me. Its not the only part or me. But it has effected me as a person enough where- I have to give it credit because- I AM- in a way- a manifestation of some qualities of it. Some things I do and am because of it- it has made me insightful and empathetic in ways I might not gave been otherwise- it has made me suicidal and self hating in ways I might not be otherwise. Both good and bad- I both HAVE it- and AM it.

But I also AM so much more

I'm trained to use person first language. Ie " he has paranoid schizophrenia" not "he's a paranoid schizophrenic"

I use either and really don't care. Then again, I'd give some preference to manic-depressive over bipolar but what can ya do? (A lot fewer people would throw *that* around about the weather and random people don't you think? Hmmmm....)

Oh, lordie, when I’m around others and I feel high or low sugar spikes, I’m forever saying, “Excuse me, I’m diabetic and I need some sugar!” Or it’s opposite.

Naming my most damaging illnesses defines what I do and what I do defines who I am. When I (if I ever again) leave my home I travel with both physical and mental pharmaceuticals. The needs that I have for survival, as prophylactics and possibilities.

I am now cancer-free. I can only say that I have had (or, if contemporaneous, have) cancer. Cancer is usually more descriptive, though, as there are very public and very private cancers (though the latter is fading, maybe; we’re all breast-cancer aware). I might announce my prostrate cancer but keep quiet about testicular cancer because our testicles are part, and parcel, of our genitalia.

The words that describe me. To my shame. I control, more often than not — a really big, giagantic not — the extent to which I am, the dimensions of my Ego. (Snarky laughter.)

Broadly, then : I have mental disorders (though I could also say that “I’m mental,” I suppose)... and then I could choose to name the specifics.

When I write I am usually very conscious of the act but not when I write here. I am always involved in something that I consider to be more worthwhile than this belated anonymous script. I’m not my generation’s Peyps and I am destined to be eternally late to the dance.

I love the em-dash. I love phrases that lend themselves to hyphenation. I wish that I was more familiar with fashionable slang. I wish that I knew of more psychiatric illnesses and treatments. I try to catch up, I do!

What do you think a 21st-century asylum is like inside? For many wards (double-entendres!) conversations still exist and, in that setting, we are our diagnoses. When we are aware we might choose to exchange our illnesses with another, a fellow inmate that we’re drawn to only because they exhibit our own behaviors. We become cliques. Long-term inmates become loose cliques and may satisfy the smallest need for society. I don’t know this but I have felt this.

I feel that “I feel” is so affectatious. A feign used in some therapy to put distance between genuine emotions.

But here. Here I overuse punctuation and abuse grammar and misspell words. This is my social media. As social as it gets.

Okay - both are correct but one, for each illness, is more correct, for each illness.

When the summer sun beats on my naked back and chest and shoulders I expose my most intimate scars. I make them public and others might ask, “what happened here or here or here?” The scars of a violent knife on my left shoulder (knives don’t wound people, right?), the surgical (and liturgical) scars.

I think that, where applicable, I prefer the great “I am.”

Ooooooo-weeeee!

I stay far away from ‘suffer’ because it has a “feel” of being victimized.

I want to leave ‘victim’ to victims. I’m not a victim of bipolar disorder.