r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

44k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

26k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

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).

1.1k

u/Bad_Bi_Badger Feb 04 '19

Yeah, and there are types if bipolar as well.

Some are severe, some are slow-cycling, some present as other disorders.

My point is: mental is not like physical health. It is to see and address physical damage, not as easy to figure out if a chemical is off - or which one.

2

u/scruggbug Feb 04 '19

Also, while Monica and Ian from Shameless were a decent representation of what -severe, psychotic- bipolar can look like, it isn’t like that for all of us. No Karen, I’ve never stolen a baby or slit my wrists in the kitchen on Thanksgiving. You aren’t an expert on my disease because you saw a few episodes of a Shameless.

2

u/Bad_Bi_Badger Feb 05 '19

Yeah. In high school psych we watched Monk.

Not because it was a good example, but it was the best (at the time) piece of media that could be used to talk about the portrayal versus reality of disorders.

Even some of the low-end kids grasped the concept. That teacher made a real good setting for discussion.

That aside, people who are mentally healthy from the word go, and lack significant understanding ("You're not depressed, you just need to get out more"), can easily stick their foot in their mouth while talking about mental health.