Five myths about bipolar disorder that make things worse
Bipolar disorder affects an estimated 2.6% of the population over age 18, or about 6.5 million people in the United States alone. But most people still don’t know much about it.
Myth 1: People with bipolar disorder are crazy or unstable
Besides the more general problem with using these terms to describe people, they don’t do a very good job of illuminating what people with bipolar disorder are going through. That’s partly because it’s impossible to say what any given person with the disorder is going through: mood disorders form a spectrum, along which there are some distinct conditions (like Bipolar I, which is what most people think of when they hear the term bipolar) but also a ton of in-between or mixed conditions.
Given the fact that neither crazy nor unstable has any clear meaning when used to describe people (what does it really mean to be stable?), and the fact that bipolar disorder isn’t even one distinct thing, we start to see why it’s better to stay away from totalizing labels. Of course, writing people off like this is a way to distance ourselves from things we don’t understand. Once we learn more, we can spend our time trying to empathize with other people’s experiences instead. So, read on!
Myth 2: Mood swings mean someone has bipolar disorder
Here’s a rather common scenario: we see someone’s mood change kind of quickly and say Wow, they’ve got to be bipolar or something. First of all, if everyone with mood swings had bipolar disorder, we’d all have bipolar disorder. Second, most people with one of the conditions on the mood disorder spectrum mentioned above experience moods which are more pronounced, last longer, and can occur outside of any clear context. There are exceptions (psychologists love exceptions), as people with mixed mood disorders can have very intense moods for just a few hours. But the point remains: mood swings are necessary but not sufficient for diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Calling everyone who seems moody bipolar is like calling everyone who seems sad depressed. You’re observing them at one point in their life, and we can all agree that’s not a good enough sample to decide who they are or what they’re dealing with. From reducing the general misunderstanding of bipolar disorder to pushing ourselves to find better means of relating to people who seem to be struggling, there are plenty of good reasons to stop throwing around diagnoses without knowing what we’re talking about.
Myth 3: Bipolar disorder makes people dangerous
While untrue, this one is a bit more complicated: while research suggests that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than its perpetrators, even this data is skewed because it can only really be talking about people diagnosed with mental illness. These reports rely on diagnosis as the determining factor of whether or not someone has a mental illness; but because mental illness is obviously something you can have despite it being unknown to everyone else, drawing a line between violent people with mental illness and violent people without mental illness seems a bit dishonest.
Let’s go through the things that do seem clear. Bipolar disorder is dangerous to the person who has it, with a suicide rate 60 times higher than that of the general population and 120 times higher during a mixed state between mania and depression. And people with severe bipolar disorder probably fall under the category of more likely to be the victim of violence. It’s also clear that, as a group, people with bipolar disorder show a very slightly higher rate of violent crime compared to the general population (4.9% compared to 3.4%). Adding substance abuse to bipolar disorder produces a significantly higher rate of violent crime (21.3%).
The best possible conclusion given the data we have? While bipolar disorder doesn’t make people more violent, complications from untreated bipolar disorder– like substance abuse and high emotional stress– increase the risk of violent acts for some people. For people with this condition, this is good motivation to seek treatment as quickly as possible. And for everyone else, it’s reason enough to stop treating people with bipolar disorder like they’re scary.
Myth 4: Mania must feel pretty good
While it has some identifying criteria, mania is a different experience for everyone. Manic episodes also vary significantly in severity, and are prone to transformation by any number of external factors. Here are some symptoms of manic episodes, compared with those of depressive episodes:
Some of these first symptoms might sound nice out of context, but when you realize that mania leads many people to act in ways they’d never want to act otherwise, things get more frightening. Many people find that they’re able to keep things in control at first, until the mania continues to spiral out of control and they find they’ve made choices affecting the most significant aspects of their lives. And in many cases, mania gets so severe that the person enters a psychotic state, detaching from reality and experiencing things that aren’t really happening.
So, while the opening stages of mania might feel like you’re completely energized and you’ve figured out the answers to all of your questions in life, the trade-offs can be immense and the consequences terrifying. Who knows what you mind end up doing if you felt like you’re capable of doing absolutely anything in the world?
Bipolar disorder isn’t only the strange, dangerous, or exciting thing that we find in stereotypes. It’s also a serious and common mental health condition. And it can be treated by a professional.
What other mental health myths are holding us back? Let us know at @treatmyocd on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
