Have Mental Illness, But Treated As Though You Have The Plague?

Have Mental Illness, But Treated As Though You Have The Plague?

Ever make a new friend and tell them up front about your mental illness with the hope of gaining their trust and understanding, only to find them backing away from you scared? Unfortunately, this is an all to common practice by many who stereo type those of us with mental illness as being “crazy”. Although we know this couldn’t be further from the truth, the stigma is still out there stronger than ever. Believe me, I know. I have Bipolar II a somewhat lesser form of Bipolar I in that I deal more with the depression and have bouts with hypomania rather than full blown mania, but nevertheless I have Bipolar.

Yes, you often get treated as though you have the plague. People find out you have a mental illness and they immediately panic. Wrong thinking comes into play. That dirty word again. Crazy, that's what they stero type you as.  They jump to their own conclusions as to your future friendship or business dealings as to what you might say or do that’s “crazy”. They worry about what others might think of their association with someone who has mental illness. And bottom line, they just think less of you. Like your not as smart, not a capable person or like you wouldn’t make as good a friend as someone else or that your weird or even dangerous.

Telling them up front about your illness is great, but be sure to also reassure them that you are just as worthy as anyone else and deserve the same treatment and respect. The truth of the matter is, speaking for myself and for many others I’m sure. When it comes to my friends and especially business matters, I put my best foot forward. I function at the very top of my game. And as many of you with Bipolar know, you can function very well at the top of your game because those with Bipolar can be very understanding, intuitive, smart, talented and creative. I often have to be smarter and stronger than most to function, just to make it through a day, to survive in the end.

I reserve my true moods, depression or whatever cycle I may be in to deal with in private. How do I do that? Because I am on the correct combination of medicines to manage my Bipolar and because I talk openly about my Bipolar. No, I will never be normal, my illness will not ever go away, but I can manage it fairly well. No I can’t always manage it at 100%, but most times, I do a fantastic job of at least masking it. It’s like they say, “what you see is not always you get” I save that part for private, behind-the-scenes so-to-speak because as I said, I put my best foot forward.

So if your reading this and you are a friend or business acquaintance or you need to reassure your new friends, old friends, business acquaintances or whomever that they need not be worried or treat you like you have the plague because you are just fine, if not better than the average person. And that anyone in life can be dangerous or crazy and can stem from a combination of factors of both nature and nurture. “Crazy” doesn’t discriminate it can affect anyone, anywhere, anytime. So rest assured, your new friends or business acquaintances can be certain you don’t have the plague.