Here are some of the things they want to clear up.
People with bipolar disorder are not always experiencing symptoms.
(Mood episodes generally last at least a week.)
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Wrong, Emma, a 20-year-old college student, tells SELF.
There’s a difference between my personality and my symptoms showing themselves.
I’m a bubbly personthat’s my personality.
That right there is my bipolar disorder.
Don’t confuse the two.
Bipolar disorder is often mistaken for other illnesses.
And it can take clinicians a long time to diagnose bipolar disorder properly.
It can take 10 years in some cases to diagnose bipolar disorder correctly, Dr. Galynker says.
I recall keeping a calendar at work where I logged how I felt, he says.
Emma says she was originally diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and mild depression.
Then, last year, she was diagnosed with bipolar II.
But the thing about bipolar disorder is that it’s all dependent on patterns.
If no one asks you to work backwards in your own timeline, you might’t figure out those patterns.
No two people experience bipolar disorder in the exact same way.
How bipolar episodes cycle and present for an individual depends on all kinds of things, Dr. Galynker says.
Not everyones symptoms and patterns fit neatly into the clinical guidelines for diagnosing bipolar disorder.
Our main concern as clinicians is when symptoms become dysfunctional, she says.
When there is a clear change in thinking and behavior, we want to address that quickly and early.
You cant simply snap out of a mood episode.
If someone is already in a full mania/hypomania or depression,medication is needed to treat symptoms.
One cannot pull themself out of a mood episode, Dr. Galynker says.
Some medications can prevent symptoms from becoming a full episode if taken in time.
changes in their voice, they start sleeping less, they are dressing differently).
We call this insightdo you have insight that youre not behaving and thinking in your normal, healthy fashions?
Bipolar disorder is something you have to learn to manage for the rest of your life.
Bipolar is a lifelong diagnosis that starts usually in the late teens or early 20s, Dr. Marsh says.
Having a mental health disorder is like having a cold, but the cold is in your head.
Sometimes I need to sleep a little more.
Sometimes my appetite isn’t there.
And I need my medication to help the process along.
People with bipolar are not crazy or dangerous.
Wewantto be in control; we dont like feeling this way.
Mania is not necessarily a pleasant experience.
But mania can be really miserable or unpleasant for somebody.
It can be hard for someone with bipolar disorder to talk about it openly.
Emma says that people without the diagnosis can also come off as uncomfortable discussing bipolar disorder.
People are so afraid to just talk about it, she says.
People also think that, if you’re open to sharing your story, that means you’re brave.
But I didn’t ask for this.
This is just my life, my reality.
I have no choice but to manage it and fight it.
Because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here.
Bipolar disorder deserves to be taken as seriously as any other chronic health condition.
Bipolar disorder is a disease that is serious and deadly just like cancer and heart disease.
This is a complex disorder and difficult to manage, but that does not register with people.
There are so many books for families and friends.
She has learned to recognize signs that I am experiencing unnatural highs and lows.
She will force me to have contact with others even though I dont want the contact.
I appreciate that, and it always helps.
Dr. Galynker agrees that family and friends can be game-changing in helping someone with bipolar disorder manage their illness.
People with bipolar disorder can live normal, happy lives.
[Were often] viewed us as defective, yet the evidence is to the contrary.
And Andrea wants to remind others that people with bipolar disorder arent necessarily suffering.
Don’t judge and don’t make assumptions.
Manyfamous, talented, productive peoplehavedealtI hate the word sufferwith bipolar disorder, she says.
There’s something to be said for the blasts of creativity that occur.
*Name has been changed.
