am i depressed or bipolar
In what has been strikingly bitter and divisive U.S. election campaign, one of the ugliest forms of personal attack has been the left wing bloggers labeling candidate vice presidential Sarah Palin as bipolar. These commentators seem to believe that it is possible to diagnose Governor Palin as a victim of closet manic-depressive without having met her or going through a formal diagnostic process. Bipolar is a specific medical term and the criteria for establishing the bipolar diagnosis of the American Psychiatric Association and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).
For those of us who have bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depressive illness), or who advocate on behalf of the bipolar community, this is a disturbing fact that summarizes the extent to which bipolar has become synonymous misconduct. Increasingly, lay people feel free to sling the term bipolar around as a pejorative, and seem to think they have, through osmosis pop culture, become experts in this very complex disease. The term bipolar has become contemporary cultural shorthand for anything we interpret as extreme or obnoxious in light of our own personal belief system.
In reality, bipolar is a spectrum of mood disorders, characterized by mood swings between mania and depression.
Symptoms of mania include excessive risks, hypersexuality, reckless financial spending, games gambling or investments, and rapid incoherent and disjointed speech. Another common symptom is bipolar grandiosity, a grossly inflated sense of their abilities and rights.
The rates of bipolar community has disproportionately high of marriage breakdown, financial problems, substance abuse, obesity, and career underachievers. During depressive phases, bipolar people may become withdrawn, unmotivated, despairing, or even suicide.
Governor Palin has a very happy marriage and successful their personal finances have been studied and found above reproach through the VP selection process, has maintained a successful career, and not abuse alcohol or drugs. Instead of grandiosity, Palin drives herself to work, reaction of the Governor listed on e-Bay, and without an executive chef. Like many in Alaska, which makes use of a tanning bed during the long dark winters to fend off vitamin deficiencies and Seasonally Affective Disorder (SAD), far from depression clinic.
Of course, not all Americans are pro-life feminists like Sarah Palin. Some voters disagree strongly with her on the important issues of the day, and will choose to support their opponents instead. Should be possible to go through this process without further casualties caricature of manic-depressive illness. Invoking the specter of mental health disorders to denigrate individuals with a different political perspective is ignorant, hurtful, and childish.
Gov. Palin is hard work, political high functioning, with a view not shared by some. Labeling of bipolar in order to express ideological disapproval is taking a medical term that is already overloaded with cultural baggage and use to further marginalize millions of fellow citizens who bravely struggle against this misunderstood disease every day and are already subject to a heavy burden of stigma and ignorance.
About the Author:
To learn more, see
Bipolar Symptoms
. Sarah Freeman is an attorney with manic-depressive illness, and webmaster of
Bipolar Lives
– one of the Internet’s leading sites on bipolar disorder.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Why Sarah Palin is Not Bipolar
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