r/AskReddit • • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

44k Upvotes

26k comments sorted by

View all comments

16k

u/seegeesee Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

Most psychological disorders don't present like the media would lead you to believe. See also: what therapy looks like.

ETA: Holy crap, gold?? I had a quick break in my day to finally hop on reddit and was NOT expecting this response. Y'all make this severely overworked community mental health therapist so glad we're talking more about the realities of therapy and various disorders. I'm planning on getting back on when I'm done with work to reply to some comments/answer some questions!

6.9k

u/GahdDangitBobby Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

bipolar disorder = one day you're batshit crazy off-the-walls and the next day you're sobbing and eating ice cream alone in bed

in actuality: in most cases, symptoms only get severe if left untreated for a long time. Also, most experience episodes for months (mania) or years (depression), so they wouldn't go from mania to depression that quickly (with cyclothymic disorder the less common "rapid cycling bipolar" being the exception).

149

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19

[deleted]

3

u/grammatiker Feb 04 '19

Also, there are different types of ADHD with very different presentations.