Candida Fink MD, doctor and PsychCentral.com blogger, wrote last September, “The bipolar diagnosis is on the rise. You can read it in the media and readily observe it by talking to people you know.”
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/bipolar/2008/09/increasing-rates-of-bipolar-diagnosis-pros-and-cons/
This hear no evil, disorder was over saturated in the media during Britney Spears’ 2008 meltdown. If you hadn’t heard it before, there was no getting around headlines splashed everywhere from magazines and newspapers, television, and all over the web. The bipolar discussion was brought to light and the flashing blubs captured every high and low. Its ridiculous the amount of doctors, who didn’t know her, who’d never met her, that were openly dishing out their supposed diagnoses. As Fink MD further explains, in her article there’s been a “40-fold increase in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents between 1994 and 2003. During this same period, the bipolar diagnosis in the adult population nearly doubled.” Doubled! Wow…
While I can’t say I’m glad Ms. Spears’ mental distress was so exploited, I am fascinated by the public discussion it brought about, and the increase in encouragement regarding public awareness. This is a treatable mental illness. It’s important that it’s thought about, considered, and properly explored when considering the impact it has on all areas of its victim’s lives, their love ones, and both parties overall functioning capabilities. Correctly treating this disorder, I can’t stress enough, is especially essential considering its probability of overlapping with other illnesses. From the dawn of time people have enjoyed unfortunately, the causal tossing around of the term crazy. We as humans are critical by nature is seems, and that’s not always a bad thing. I’m now concerned though that this awareness doesn’t go too mainstream, and lose its seriousness in turn for trendiness. J.R White talks about this in his online article entitled “The Bipolar Trend”.
http://brainblogger.com/2008/05/27/the-bipolar-trend/
With the current state of mental ailments being on the rise as it is, it’s hard to not worry of the effect of misdiagnoses. A catch-22 of sorts, now everyone really knows about and now everyone thinks everyone has it. As crazy as you might think your boss is, bipolar disorder may not be an actual issue. Then again it could be. But either way I advise responsibly thinking about how you might personally toss the term around.
—Posted by Eliza Barnett
Photo Credit belongs to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullish1974/124727311/
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Filed under: Eliza Barnett, bi-polar
