BiPolar Stigma
Do you feel there is a stigma attached to being bipolar? When people I have worked with found out, I was shunned even though I worked with no problems with them for years. Do you think your aquantances might react the same way?
Yes, there is definitely still a stigma with BiPolar, which is why I keep my bipolar blog anonymous. Thankfully the stigma is a heck of a lot less than 100 years ago, but I don't think it will ever go away. The best way to nuetralise it is to show the non-bipolar world that we have unique gifts that they don't (despite our "shortcomings")
Only my close friends and family know that I am BiPolar. I would say I have only told about 2 people my condition the rest have found out from visting me in hospital or through the grapevine.
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ReplyDeleteYes, there is definitely still a stigma. I would love to blog about my experiences, but I would have to keep it anonymous. On my personal blog, I don't mention anything about my mental illness or experience with bipolar and bordeline personality.
ReplyDeleteI played open cards with my employer - felt like it was the right thing to do considering I had experienced two major depressive episodes in the space of one year, along with a two week long irritable mania. If I hadn't I don't think they would have been so accommodating of my current phase of rapid-cycling. I've had over 70 sick days in the last two years.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it doesn't mean there isn't a stigma attached. As there usually is with things that 'Joe Soap' doesn't know too much about.
BiPolar Guy has difficulty maintaining multiple categories of blogs and writings. BiPolar Guy also finds the exposure to stigma a threat.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem is we ALL like to categories people and aspects of our lives. It is nature's way of ensuring our safety and mental wellbeing. We see a worm and have that instantly in the category of "safe", see a snarling dog, "unsafe". We put things into pigeon holes of our minds, without that we will be completely confused.
Perhaps BiPolar Guy's difficulty is trying to ensure that other people understand BiPolar Guy correctly and put BiPolar Guy in the right pigeon hole of their minds?
Yes. There is a great stigma with anything that is classified as different from normal. Any mental illness has that affect. Outside of my family, one other person knows. Even worse, the stigmatism attached to a different religion. I am Buddhist as well and I do tell people if it comes up in a conversation. The looks I get from telling people pretty much tells me if telling them I'm bi-polar as well. As you can tell, the answer is usually no. The more people I meet that are negative, the more "normal" I feel.
ReplyDeleteI know this thread is a bit old, but here is my 5c worth. I told my employer, and then somebody that wanted my job, used it to get my job. In the long run it worked out better (even though it looked like the end of my world), because I have now been a freelance designer for 3 years and it suits me a lot better. I am very selective of who I tell. My mother thinks it's something she can tell new people so that when I walk into the room they stare at me like I have rabies or just one eye in the middle of my forehead. Luckily she stays far away and I don't have to deal with it very often. The kids I tell as much as possible that I think that they can handle for their ages, but I've made sure that they know is not something you go and tell your buddies at school. Most of the people that know, don't understand, although they think they do, so I don't worry about them much. In any case, I stopped 'drinking out of the toilet bowl' a couple of years ago and I can pretty much pass as a human being these days, so no need to tell anybody.
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