navwin » Discussion » pipTalk Lounge » People Suck Sometimes
pipTalk Lounge
Post A Reply Post New Topic People Suck Sometimes Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
Dark Enchantress
Senior Member
since 1999-07-27
Posts 1258
meet Morgana

0 posted 2002-08-15 08:32 PM


This post is about/inspired by an article in a magazine I read. I don't know how many of you have read the article "Young and Bipolar" in the August 19, 2002 issue of TIME magazine, but don't worry I'll summarize.

Basically, manic depression which is now commonly referred to as bipolar disorder is now occuring in children and teens more and more. It was once believed that the disorder effected mostly perhaps even only adults. Some 2.3 million adult Americans suffer from it, which doesn't include an uncounted number of kids that they believe could be up to a million or more. And yes, there is more.. but I'm going to cut in now.

I could have told them that manic depression affects kids when I was 10 years old. They're figuring this out now? All they had to do was get their noses out of all their textbooks and ask people. This is the particular aspect of psychology that bothers me. They seem to be depending far too much on their training when the matter at hand is someone's mental health. Like some people shouldn't be teachers, doctors, or lawyers... some people just shouldn't be psychologists.

Back to the article - The reasons they think so many cases are popping up are basically summed up as 3.

- The stresses of school, home life, and society are too much.
- Drugs.. they believe that for a person who may only be slightly emotional or unstable drugs make it much worse.
- It's due to your genes. I'm no scientist so I don't understand all the technical stuff, but basically they think that it's something to do with your genes.

I'm cutting in again. Stresses of school, home life, and society? These things contribute, but give me a break. I mean everyone has stress. I just despise the whole victim mentality some people have. Some people run around talking about how their dads or moms suck.. do you want to know bad parents? Go to a family where the parents are on drugs and they beat their children. Or the father rapes the daughter. Or even just the fathers/mothers who are never around. Don't give me this crap about your dad decided to ground you for doing something that was stupid in the first place. Friggin' bite me. Drugs.. I agree will screw you up in more way than one, but I doubt it's the reason for bipolar disorder. News flash - not everyone that is bipolar does drugs. I'm an example. I do agree that it is something involved with your body's chemistry. Mainly because even though I've had scrapes with several different problems (who hasn't, heh) normally in my worst bipolar episodes it was not due to a specific event. The mood swings just go with no warning. And when it lasts months.. often I don't even know why I feel like dying.

Back to the article.. they put this little survey in there that you're supposed to check off if you or your child has these behaviors. First of all, I think it needs to be explained that anyone can have these behavior tendencies, but for people who have the illness it's more extreme. It's not controlled/controlable. Second, "Is very intuitive and creative"? What the.. okay, so now this is a bad thing? Geez.. you guys all have bipolar disorder! "Lies to avoid consequence of actions". Who doesn't? I mean really. Who has never lied to avoid consequences?

Some parts of this article were good while other parts were... not. I know that a really good writer for magazines and such is going to explore the issue entirely to present all sides, but still... the fact that some people actually think this way annoys me. I mean it seems like people are so quick to blame and point fingers. I am always curious as to why things happen. I'm that irritating girl who always asks why. But there's a difference between finding out the reason why and finding more excuses. I mean sure.. violence in some way or another has always existed in my life, but does that make it okay for me to be violent with people and abusive? Of course not. You can link my behavior now to the past, but that never makes it okay. If I'm violent and quick to throw punches in my anger it's because I do it. ME. Not my parents. Not anyone else. ME. If I become an alcoholic it's my doing. (Now alcholism does run in my family, which could trigger it but that doesn't excuse it. And that is also another post.) If I'm promiscuous that's my doing. You know what I mean? I guess the main theme of this post turned out to be more about the fact that I just wish people would quit thinking of themselves as victims.

If you guys have any thoughts on this please share. I've been told many times that I'm "crazy", but sometimes (in fact often) it seems I'm one of the few people sane.


"you don't need one of these to let me inside of you" T.A.

[This message has been edited by Dark Enchantress (08-15-2002 11:32 PM).]

© Copyright 2002 Morgana - All Rights Reserved
skyshine
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Elite
since 2002-02-07
Posts 3058
Beneath the northern stars
1 posted 2002-08-15 11:25 PM


Just wanted to quickly say that I agree with you. I'll discuss more in depth later. You have a lot of good thoughts in this.

~Beth

You look inside my wild mind
never knowing what you'll find
still I want you all the time
yeah I do
'cause you get me
~Michelle Branch

Anvrill
Senior Member
since 2002-06-21
Posts 710
in the interzone now
2 posted 2002-08-16 10:31 AM


I'm friends with three diagnosed bi-polars, and about five who show all the same signs but haven't gone to a doctor (and I myself am more dangerously moody than my diagnosed bipolar friends). I've done research on it, in both high school and (first year) university psychology, because it just captures my interest so much... I hate doctors with a passion, and am in essence trying to diagnose myself, I suppose.

Here's a fun fact: Most creative people we know of (in other words, the actors, authors, composers and comedians who are succesfull enough for you to know their name) have manic depression, chronic depression, mild to severe schizophrenia, or any number of personality disorders (the first three are chemical imbalances). There have been studies upon studies done to see whether or not creativity and insanity are linked, or if things like this are just odd coincidences. No one can seem to agree.

Makes you wonder if being insane makes you creative or being creative drives you insane... Hmm.

Anyway, backing up. Manic depression is a chemical imbalance. Period, exclamation mark. Dopamine and some other thing that I forget the name of (I know, I'm terrible) are supposed to be held at certain levels in your brain, but when they're released wrong, they mess you up somethin' fierce.

One of the most recent things I've heard about manic depressive statistics are that it's most likely to start showing after puberty (what with all the other chemical changes going off), but it's possible to be there at any age. (It's just harder to track chemical imbalances or mental instability of any sort in children, because kids are just plain weird.)

And have I ever used so many parantheses before in my life? I don't know.

Anyway, I'd just like to say that I think chemical imbalances and personality disorders and the like are a hell of a lot more common than the stats show... I mean, aside from the bipolars, I know three other people who have been diagnosed with mental problems. (Severe anxiety disorder, ADD, and something I forget the name of that is basically the obsessive need to defy authority; that one was put in the psych ward for a great deal of his childhood.)

So that's 6 people who have been officially diagnosed, which in itself makes you wonder about the stats claiming only a minority of the population has mental problems...

Maybe I just attract 'em. But I really doubt that. In my experience, it's normal for people to be abnormal, so maybe we'd better start switching around our definitions a bit...

Anyway. This is my late-night babble. Sure, it's first thing in the morning, but I pull graveyard shifts, and it's way past my bedtime.

G'night.

impress me, or be discarded

mpc

Dark Enchantress
Senior Member
since 1999-07-27
Posts 1258
meet Morgana
3 posted 2002-08-16 11:42 AM


I don't know if I mentioned this or not.. but I do have the disorder and I'm not somebody just talking about something I don't have any experience with. I know I get offended when people run their mouths blindly so I just wanted to make sure so that I don't offend anyone. I also have a very strong interest in psycology (particularly the "darker" side of it).

Here's a bit of where I'm coming from: They made me start going to therapy for being suicidal originally and for having "episodes" where I'd bang my head into walls and pull out my hair. Those who ever observed said that I appeared to be afraid of something that wasn't there. Personally.. I'm never sure. It's blurry. I got fed up with the ridiculousness of the doctors around me and just decided to stop going. Well, after months of extreme highs and lows and very often occurances of mood swings it became a little more obvious that gee golly I just wasn't better. I started cutting and burning myself.. on a daily basis.. so I had to go. They wanted to put me into a "looney bin" but my mom wouldn't do it because she was afraid of what people would think. (Isn't that a laugh.)

I've been seeing them on and off since I was 5. I know a great deal of other people who have been seeing psychologist and the like. I agree with you when you say that you think that a lot more people have these disorders than the stats say. Probably a hell of a lot more. However at the same time I don't want to run around saying that people have any number of disorders. I think everyone knows what it's like to "walk on the edge", but there's a difference between tasting it and choking on it. You know what I mean? I don't know. I just got back from working out in the sun so my brain is mush. I'll be back later when I actually have something worth saying.


"you don't need one of these to let me inside of you" T.A.

[This message has been edited by Dark Enchantress (08-16-2002 11:50 AM).]

paper doll
Member
since 2002-08-04
Posts 133
Floating on Uncertainty
4 posted 2002-08-17 07:07 AM


That's a highly interesting article, Jaime but do you know what the even funnier thing is? The majority of people that actually write these things have absolutely no idea whatsoever on what they're discussing and as such refer to a text book which is obviously "God" and don't take note on what's happening around them.

People very easily confuse the majority of most mental issues/problems and place them in a corner. They only become noticeable if a celebrity suddenly comes out and screams at the world, "I've got depression! I couldn't work for a whole week!!!" or if they are running low on subject content.

I've been diagnosed so many freakin' times by too many doctors and as such have frequently come into contact with blatent idiocy. After many hours and a hell of a lot of money, I'm on my 15th psychiatrist because no one understood what was wrong...instead they decided that I've just got "depression" but only of a mild state and as such wasn't really in a situation to be worried about. They neglected to notice the ED's, SI and every other mood/depressive disorder you could think of. But hey just abnormal, right?

It's just the way the world works and yes you're right, people do suck. If the problems don't directly involve them, they don't give a stuff. You should enjoy articles like this. It proves that the "insane" people are more often than not the "normal" ones. Be happy we know this and aren't running around in the darkness calling for a light switch. We at least realised they cut the power.

Imagination=nostalgia for the past, the absent; it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshots of reality.

Post A Reply Post New Topic ⇧ top of page ⇧ Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.
navwin » Discussion » pipTalk Lounge » People Suck Sometimes

Passions in Poetry | pipTalk Home Page | Main Poetry Forums | 100 Best Poems

How to Join | Member's Area / Help | Private Library | Search | Contact Us | Login
Discussion | Tech Talk | Archives | Sanctuary