There are many myths about what it's like to live with bipolar disorder. People constantly make assumptions about it based on media portrayals, but life is not a movie or a news report. Living with bipolar disorder is complex and varied, and what happens to some is not necessarily common to everyone. So let's dispel some myths about what it's like to live with bipolar disorder and encourage people to stop making uneducated assumptions.
Living with Bipolar Myth #1: We experience violent outbursts
The media likes to point out that when a violent incident occurs, the person has bipolar disorder. This leads people to believe that those with bipolar disorder are violent. This rarely happens.
Although people with bipolar disorder are more likely than the average person to experience violence, this is primarily because a comorbid substance use disorder or personality disorder is involved. For example, NESARC study 2001-2002 found that 0.66% of the population without a psychiatric diagnosis exhibited aggressive behavior, compared to 2.52% in those without comorbidity (i.e., comorbidity such as substance use disorder or personality disorder) and bipolar I, and that there is a ratio. and bipolar type II had a rate of 5.12%. These numbers are high compared to the undiagnosed general population, but still very, very low. It is fundamentally wrong to say that people with bipolar disorder are violent.
Living with Bipolar Myth #2: We repeatedly experience radical mood swings
Again, thanks to movies and television, people are given the impression that people with bipolar disorder will go from one mood to the next. This is not true. Most mood episodes in bipolar disorder last for weeks to months (unless treated). In addition, most people with bipolar disorder experience fewer than four mood episodes per year. There is a shortage of experienced people ride a fast bike bipolar disorder (more than three episodes per year), but even these people usually experience mood states that last for days or weeks. The 12-month prevalence of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder was found to be 0.3%. In a 2010 study.
Living with Bipolar Myth #3: We're All Addicts
While it is true that substance use disorders are common in those with bipolar disorder, this is still not true for everyone. In surveys conducted between 1990 and 2015, substance use disorders were found to be present in more than 30% of those with bipolar disorder in the community and 40% of those in clinical settings. (This is for comparison About 16.5% of the American population age 12 and older.) This certainly makes it common (even in those without bipolar disorder), but it does not make it universal. It's unfair to assume that because a person has bipolar disorder that they have a substance use disorder, when more than half of us don't.
Living with Bipolar Myth #4: We exhibit antisocial behaviors such as lying, guilt, and lack of empathy
Antisocial behaviors are not usually associated with bipolar disorder and are not listed as such diagnostic symptoms. Antisocial behaviors are usually associated with antisocial personality disorder. A person can have both antisocial personality disorder and bipolar disorder, but this is only true for about 4.1% of people with bipolar disorder. This means that the vast majority of us stumble through life just like everyone else. (This means that sometimes people with bipolar disorder do things like lie, just like everyone else.)
Living with Bipolar Myth #5: We're all the same
I constantly run into people who have had a bad experience with someone with bipolar disorder, and thus assume they will have a bad experience with anyone with bipolar disorder. This is simply not true. Although there are similarities with people with bipolar disorder – we all have one brain disorder – Most of us are unique. Yes, we experience mania or high mood hypomania and low mood such as depression; these are similarities, but other things are unique to us. Some of us like chocolate and some of us like vanilla. Some of us would hold the door open for the little old woman; some of us wouldn't. Some of us are rash and some of us are not. These are not related to our bipolar disorder; about them to us. We can't blame everything on bipolar disorder, neither can you. We deserve to be treated as individuals just like you.
What living with bipolar disorder is like for all of us
When I talk about living with bipolar disorder, it's important to note that it's different for everyone—even about the experience of the symptoms. I am a specialist in bipolar disorder; I have been write professionally 14 years on this and I've lived with bipolar disorder for 26 years and I can't even begin to tell you what it's like for anyone to live with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a very diverse illness. The only way to know how someone is living with bipolar disorder is to ask them.
Photo: © Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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