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Is It Cool to be Bipolar?

posted February 12, 2007 - 11:15am
Is It Cool to be Bipolar?

I'm pretty sure there was a time when "bad" didn't mean "good." I'm also quite certain that there was a time when "insane" meant "insane." But today, thanks to the advancement of science, there are hipper ways to call somebody crazy. It's true that anybody who walks into a psychiatrist's office will walk out with some sort of label. We're ALL crazy, we just need to be diagnosed. The good news is, it's not such a bad thing. Perhaps the most popular label thesedays is "bipolar." For most people, getting that label adds depth to their personality. Some won't even have ANY personality if it weren't for such labels. But once someone is fortunate enough to have walked out of a psychiatrist's office with a label, his or her life is forever changed. That person is no longer a self-pitying, self-centered, self-worshipping psycho. That person has now become a certified, victim of society and unfortunate circumstances. This person is now "special." This person's life is much more complex and difficult than those of us who aren't worthy enough to be labeled with some sort of mental illness. They now have a license to do whatever they darn please, live like locusts and parasites and blame it all on their "disease." And the great thing about all that is not only can they get away with it, they'll also get sympathy and praise for living such a hard life. It's totally cool to be bipolar if you ask me. I think I'm going to see a psychiatrist this week and get mine.

Author: theSaint
-A +A


Comments

are you serious? you want to

lisadee - Tue, 2007-18-12 8:09 pm
are you serious? you want to know what's the cool about being bipolar? not being able to make any kind of decision. flunking out of school because you haven't slept for four months. hearing voices all the time. running and hiding every time a car drives by because you think they are spying on you. running around naked in a room full of people. becoming an alcoholic or drug addict. bad relationship after relationship (that is if you make it past the one-nighter). waking up with people you don't know living in your house because you invited them when you were in some kind of stupor. spending money you don't have and running your financial life because of it. sound cool? hope so because we often get hit with that which we mock. i hope you don't because this crap isn't something i'd wish on my worst enemy.

Be careful whatca' wish for...

LadyPeninhand - Tue, 2007-13-2 1:06 am
you just might get it! Sometimes when you least expect it, Karma drops in with a hard-learned lesson for those of us who take our good fortune for granted. I should probably just keep my mouth shut about this because I really don't know much about all the different mental disorders, or the indicators, symptoms, or affects of one from the other. I know that at one time, PMS symptoms were often mistaken for manic depression. I also know that any form of depression, if left untreated, can become every bit as crippling to your mind as Muscular Dystrophy or Multiple Sclerosis can be to your limbs. I've wondered, myself, how many homeless street people who are labeled as drunks or worthless bums are actually clinically depressed, or bi-polar. But unless we declare it a mission to go out and round them all up to figure out what's really wrong with them, we'll never know that either. You could probably find though, how many people are on State or Federal funded disability programs... all-totaled, nationwide...who became eligible because of a diagnosis of some sort of mental illness or substance abuse. While that won't tell us how many are misdiagnosed, how many are just drunken bums, or how many are 'allergic to work', it WILL tell us how much the whole damned mess costs us taxpayers monthly and/or annually, while we sit around and complain about it! That might be interesting and fun! :) Anyway, here's wishing ya'll good Karma!! Lady:P

Lady:P

'I sleep naked.'

I think I'm bipolar too

theSaint - Mon, 2007-12-2 6:29 pm
You're right. I should do some research before making such a claim. You see, it's just this condition I have, it gets the better of me sometimes, making it hard for me to be rational. I might be bipolar. But thank you for your advice. I will seek help and hopefully, with the right medication, I could live a normal life, too, and come up with more accurate figures.

theSaint

Very good, and I have my favorite clip too!

Les Porter - Mon, 2007-12-2 6:01 pm
In this regard, I do appreciate and understand where you are coming from. So, I like this part of the clipable response! Every line is a treasure! Anyway. "I feel that out of every 100 patients who get diagnosed with some sort of mental disorder, only 5 of those have real issues" I do not feel it would be appropriate to get your feel for the numbers, or that 5% who say they are, are legitimate. I suggest a gathering of information on your part. And heck, you have the internet and can almost access and learn about anything. I thank you for showing a very large part of your character! Cheers!

Say it ain't so...

Nick - Xomba CEO - Mon, 2007-12-2 3:30 pm
"No offense taken. That's the great thing about our country, we can be totally ignorant and speak our ignorant minds." That made me laugh. Thanks.

it's okay to be ignorant

theSaint - Mon, 2007-12-2 2:04 pm
No offense taken. That's the great thing about our country, we can be totally ignorant and speak our ignorant minds. I don't mean to make fun of a cripple. I feel that out of every 100 patients who get diagnosed with some sort of mental disorder, only 5 of those have real issues. The rest is something else--those are the ones I am targeting. Again, coming from this ignorant mind. Thank you for the comment!

theSaint

Hi. You write well considering, but this is something of which

Les Porter - Mon, 2007-12-2 1:31 pm
you are clearly ignorant. I too, have been ignorant, often to an embarrassing fault, and I freely admit to knowing the terrible taste of crow -- even crow exquisite and well-prepared. Durn it all, this is one of those crow times, or maybe a better way to describe it is, well, to state this: There are times, and this is one of them, when the foot is in the mouth. Or worse. The gun you just fired, like James Watt, went right through the top of your foot and you discover a really serious limp has afflicted your progress. You will, believe it or not, do pennance -- and I have done true pennance before too, and asked people I would never ever have thought of asking to understand my ignorance and insensitivity and allow me time to redress my lacks and from these gifts revist and correct myself to a missing link within me to the rest of the world. I'm not much of a peacemaker, nor am I often effective at containing my own plentiful faults and biases and insensitivities. And sometimes I am mean (usually in return; none of this other cheek stuff for me, until I see how stupid I am to feel that way) but rarely am I intentionally mean -- though it happens. It is not my intent here. I know you are NOT stupid. But you may be as hard-headed as I am, and as ignorant as I am. But it is NOT cool to be bipolar. It is like making fun of a cripple, and that is not cool; or torturing anything. Not cool. Good luck on the journey. Take hold of the opportunities. (I really feel awkward, and probably should not have posted this. But I guess I must be human.)

sorry, I should've specified

theSaint - Mon, 2007-12-2 12:54 pm
sorry, I should've specified adults, not kids. Besides, it's cool to be bipolar.

theSaint

And don't forget: thanks to

TheWonderer - Mon, 2007-12-2 12:18 pm
And don't forget: thanks to advances in blogging, there are hipper ways to show total ignorance. It's now true that many people who sit down in front of a PC will walk away thinking they've shared a witty, informed opinion when in reality they've shared a moronic, vicious diatribe with the world. How many of those "fortunate" to walk out with the label of bipolar do you know? Their lives have already changed before they were "fortunate" enough to get that label. Maybe, just maybe, that's why they were there in the first place. Now they, or more accurately their families, will understand why they can't make friends, why simple challenges become overwhelming, why things we might ignore frighten them? Now their families might understand why their loved ones commit inexplicable self-destructive acts like smashing their heads repeatedly on the edge of a wooden cabinet? And now they get to do "whatever they darn please"? So those people who constantly supervise them in homes, group homes or hospital psychiatric wards are really letting them do whatever they please? Is it really just a clever way to enjoy themselves when hospital attendants grab them and bang their heads into radiators when they don't respond immediately to their orders? You must think it's a lot of fun when kids who were their friends when they were five now make fun of them instead or avoid them altogether because now that they're eleven, they simply can't relate to each other anymore? I guess you would really think its great as a parent, to watch your bipolar child sit and cry from loneliness as a result of this isolation? The bipolar child's brain has been stripped of the ability to understand cause and effect, develop social skills, a sense of what is and isn't dangerous. As a result, that child may hurt those closest to him or even himself and then regret it without knowing how it came to happen. What you're saying is that those kids now can live "like parasites and locusts". I suppose it's pointless to continue because this response assumes you, the writer, have a capacity for compassion and the ability to see another viewpoint. Maybe if you could magically become truly bipolar for a week, you might see how ignorant and inhumane your post actually is. http://www.xomba.com/user/thewonderer

http://www.xomba.com/user/thewonderer

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