Bipolar: Refuse to Believe This About Yourself
Published: Tue, 10/22/13
Hi ,
How are things going for you?
I hope you're having a good day today.
Remember when you were little and you were
always scared of the boogie man?
We all were.
Why were we so scared, though?
Because we're afraid of things we can't see.
We're afraid of things we don't understand.
Like STIGMA.
The stigma of bipolar disorder is like the boogie
man because when you're growing up, you're taught
to fear things you don't understand, to fear things
that you can't see or don't understand.
When people can't see mental illness, they fear it.
It's taught to them from childhood.
So what we've got to do is educate people to let them
know that the boogie man isn't so scary.
That's one of the best ways we can fight stigma.
But you need to refuse to believe this about bipolar
disorder -
That the stigma makes you a lesser person.
Don't believe the stigma, and you won't be a victim
of it.
Change the way you see yourself, and others will
change the way they see you (you will no longer
be a victim).
See what I mean?
Stigma is a perception of someone else's state of
mind.
Someone else cannot make you feel inferior because
of their feelings.
By you knowing who you are, what you are capable
of, what they believe is their own problem, not yours.
You've got to look at the person first before you
look at the symptoms, before you look at the illness.
If someone isn't capable of that, that's not your problem,
and you shouldn't allow them to affect you in a manner
that's going to prove them right.
I talk about stigma in my courses/systems, not because
I want to, because I really wish we didn't have to deal
with it, but because it's a part of our society that we have
to live with, until we educate enough people about
bipolar disorder.
SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
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HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
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http://www.survivebipolar.net
The way you view yourself should not be
dependent upon the way others view you,
anyway.
Here's a perfect scenario:
If you see someone in a wheelchair, how do you feel?
Do you feel sorry for them?
Do you have pity on them?
Do they want you to have pity on them?
Or do they want to feel the same as you are?
Having bipolar disorder is like being that person in the
wheelchair.
You want people to see through the outside to the
person you are inside.
You want people to see that, like the person in the
wheelchair, you are like them.
They just can't see the part of your body where your
illness lies.
Even though our background and circumstances may
have influenced who we are, we are still responsible
for who we become.
It is your choice whether you are seen as a victim of
stigma or not.
Here's what I'm talking about. It's a quote from a
Jewish man named Victor Frankl, who was a prisoner
in a concentration camp.
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude
in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Now, if anyone could have chosen to be a victim of stigma,
it would have been Frankl, yet he chose what he wrote.
You have to know that you don't have to be a victim of
stigma, and you cannot allow yourself to be one.
Like Frankl, you can choose your own attitude about it.
You can choose to be a role model for other people with
bipolar disorder.
You can choose to educate those people who are still
scared, who don't understand.
You can choose to help other people with the disorder stand
up for themselves so that they aren't victims, either.
To succeed where in the past you may have failed, to be
stable when you weren't before, gives you the confidence
to look someone in the eye and say, "You're wrong."
Success with bipolar disorder means to prove them wrong
about you - that you are not a victim, but a survivor.
What do you think?
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Well, I have to go!
Your Friend,
Dave
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