Debunking 5 Harmful Myths About Bipolar Disorder
We can reduce stigma through education.
Mental illness can be hard to understand unless you’re in the midst of it. With physical issues or illnesses, we can often see exactly what is happening but we just cannot with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder. Thus, harmful myths arise when people just don’t understand the nature of such an illness. Many times people believe the stigma surrounding these disorders because that ‘s all they have seen portrayed in the media or in fictional way in television or movies. I know that I’m not alone in watching the media portray people with bipolar disorder as dangerous, out of control, and often not very functional. The fact is that most of us with bipolar disorder are just like everyone else, other than dealing with this complex condition.
As there are so many myths out there about bipolar disorder, let’s go ahead and debunk five of them.
Myth 1 — People with bipolar disorder are either manic or depressed
The fact is that mood episodes can simply happen a few times per year, or not at all. This tends to depend on whether someone is stable or not. Either way, there is usually downtime in between. It is actually more common than not that those with bipolar disorder tend to…
