Postcards from the Funny Farm

Before discussing the abstract art that we call bipolar, we have to look at diagnosis and what is required.  It seems like more and more news stories about rapists, murderers, garden variety psychopaths, and the like contain a tag at the end of something like:

“This story is truly a tragedy, such and such was being treated for bipolar before they went bad.”

You must have a heart for the bipolars out there who are living productive, often high-level professional albeit silent lives.  They are still dealing with the unbearable highs and lows (which we will discuss in a later post) and they also have to maintain in such a way as to never let anyone expect they have the specter.  After all, the evening news is no friend to bipolars.  They extend the stigma along with ill-informed people, the media, and Hollywood.  It puts an albatross around the neck of anyone who finds out they might have it. Many bipolars say it makes them want to search for the best flight deals out of town.

Even bloggers can spread false stigma about bipolar.  I remember reading one guy’s blog (I won’t link or mention it).  He would write everyday how the walls were breathing and making him angry and other outlandish truly psychotic things.  He would justify it by saying he was bipolar.  I wrote him a note saying his symptoms seemed more schizophrenic than and he said he had read a book and diagnosed himself as bipolar without ever seeing a psychiatrist.  Ah, the downside of the internet.

The number one enemy of people with bipolar is people who self-diagnose themselves as bipolar.

To be clinically diagnosed bipolar, according to the DSM, several quite explicit and profound symptoms must be present over time.  I read one doctor that said true diagnosis can take about 10 years.

The reason this is important is because we all have moods.  Just because someone has mood swings does NOT make her/him bipolar.  Often irresponsible people tell everyone they are bipolar before getting a medical diagnosis.  They do this for mixed reasons.  Bipolar unfortunately has become a “catch all” for people with issues.

Even if a responsible person feels moments of extreme highs and lows and goes to the doctor to get diagnosed, the doctor may be wrong.  Bipolars have to sort through feelings, facts, and the data day to day.  They have to become experts on their disorder because even the doctors can’t know for sure until time has passed and behavior observed.

Do you know someone who claims to be bipolar?  Have you seen a movie or news show that equated moodiness with bipolar?  Remember diagnosis is the key. If they aren’t seeing a psychiatrist regularly (either in real life or on the show) it is likely they are not truly the texbook bipolar.  Rather, they are part of a stereotype.  There is a lot more than mood to bipolar as you will learn in this series. Take this list linked below for example. It is famous people who have been clinically diagnosed as having bipolar.  Recognize any of them?

Remember seeing any of them frothing at the mouth or filmed in a straight-jacket?  Hardly.  Most of them are/were world changers and that’s one thing science can associate with bipolars.  I’ll bet you never heard that in the media!  Consider the silent bipolars when you hear and see the loud ones on your television screen.  Based on what I have researched and experienced regarding bipolar, I think society needs a real paradigm shift toward the truth about it.

Wiki partial list of Famous people with Bipolar

I once read that the Chinese dragon we see in parades and such is an emblem of an enemy to defeat. By making ones enemy beautiful, it is thought that one can better defeat him. Depression is well known to have risen in diagnosis in past decades.  Other mental illnesses remain in the shadows.  For an estimated 3-5% of the world’s population, a mental illness called bipolar is the enemy that must be defeated.  Unfortunately for them, their families, and friends, there isn’t a whole lot of help easily available. It is neurological and not a purely psychological disorder (though cognitive therapy must be present in concert with drugs).  The worst thing about it is the largely unfounded social stigmas that often keep bipolars from sharing their disorder.

Many true diagnosed bipolars live silent lives of quiet desperation.

As with most things, learning the facts produces a paradigm shift but society doesn’t seem too interested.  Folks with bipolar who find understanding are like unlocked cell phones.  Unfortunately friends of people with bipolar can’t get a clear understanding, neither can family.  Even bipolars themselves are many times confused and in denial of what they suffer from. It has been compared to life on a roller coaster.  That’s why I created a series on bipolar.  I hope you are entertained by it and that you learn more about your brain through it.

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This is the introduction to a series at Postcards from the Funny Farm.  If you are interested in the topic of this series, you may want to subscribe via -or- to not miss a post.

I’ve written a few tips about self-diagnosis through online sou.... It can save you all kinds of time and hassle when you use the many resources out there. Well, now I’m writing about a website one step beyond: one that gives you “ask a physician” access, some really helpful health articles and sells low priced name brand prescriptions.

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Have you ever used an online pharmacy?