Hi, how\u2019s it going? Hope you are doing well.<\/p>\n
I was talking to a random person the other day, and they asked what I did for a living. So I told them about my company, and about the fact that it is based on helping people who have bipolar disorder and their supporters.<\/p>\n
She then looked at me and said, \u201cOh, yeah, my aunt is bipolar.\u201d That really irritated me. It wasn\u2019t the fact that her aunt happened to have bipolar disorder that irritated me, or even that she mentioned it. It was her wording.<\/p>\n
As far as I\u2019m aware, her aunt isn\u2019t the personification of bipolar disorder. There is probably more to her aunt\u2019s life than just bipolar disorder. And she certainly doesn\u2019t need to be defined by bipolar.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m sure that this lady didn\u2019t mean to offend me, so I just said back to her, \u201cOh, your aunt has bipolar disorder?\u201d Somehow I doubt she caught on.<\/p>\n
Sometimes there is not much we can do to fix other people\u2019s mistakes. But we can fix our own. And sometimes, like in this situation, it happens to be as easy as changing our wording.<\/p>\n
Our loved ones aren\u2019t bipolar; they have bipolar. Can you see the difference?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say you have bipolar disorder. It\u2019s bad enough dealing with the label already. It means people look at you differently and act differently around you. It means you can\u2019t get certain jobs and have a harder time taking on the ones you can get. It means you have to have people to support you, which you are most likely grateful for; but it\u2019d be nice to not absolutely need them. At least not in that way.<\/p>\n
But then on top of the label already being bad enough, let\u2019s say that you had it worse. Let\u2019s say that you didn\u2019t just have bipolar disorder. Let\u2019s say that you are bipolar.<\/p>\n
So not only are you the person who has the problem, you are also the cause of the problem. That would really stink, wouldn\u2019t it? To know that it was your own fault that you are in the situation you are in?<\/p>\n
And then, there would be no way to escape from the symptoms, because the symptoms are you. You\u2019d never get any relief. You\u2019d never have any hope for recovery. You\u2019d never know what it felt like to not be in a manic or depressed episode. And depending on how you look at it, if you were bipolar disorder, you would probably be responsible for other people\u2019s pain as well. That is a thought that I don\u2019t even want to think about.<\/p>\n
Can you imagine what it must be like to be bipolar disorder? I can\u2019t. So why on earth would we call our loved ones bipolar disorder? Or, those of you that have bipolar disorder, why would you do this to yourself?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like adding insult to injury. It\u2019s bad enough having bipolar disorder without making it worse by labeling it wrongly.<\/p>\n
And people don\u2019t do that with other diseases and disorders. You don\u2019t hear someone saying \u201cI am cancer,\u201d or \u201cshe is cancer.\u201d You don\u2019t hear anyone saying \u201cI am diabetes,\u201d or \u201che is diabetes.\u201d For that matter, you don\u2019t even hear anyone saying \u201cI am high cholesterol,\u201d or \u201che is high cholesterol.\u201d So why do we say \u201cshe is bipolar?\u201d<\/p>\n
Next time you start to say that, stop yourself and correct yourself. Start to say \u201che has bipolar disorder\u201d instead. It is a small change. But it will make all the difference in the world.<\/p>\n
What do you think of that?<\/p>\n
Well, I have to go!<\/p>\n
Your Friend,<\/p>\n
Dave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi, how\u2019s it going? Hope you are doing well.<\/p>\n
I was talking to a random person the other day, and they asked what I did for a living. So I told them about my company, and about the fact that it is based on helping people who have bipolar disorder and their supporters.<\/p>\n
She then looked at me and said, \u201cOh, yeah, my aunt is bipolar.\u201d That really irritated me. It wasn\u2019t the fact that her aunt happened to have bipolar disorder that irritated me,<\/p>\n