My family pushes it under the rug as well. They act as if it never exsisted until me, there fore i am the broken one.  I truely believe anyone with bipolar is very emotional, deep, and if anything soft hearted. I hear alot of people around the apartment that i live in make comments constantly.. if anyone has a bad day they say... go take a pill your bipolar. If i get angry or upset about anything thats what they tell me. It feels as if you have bipolar or depression that you arent allowed to be angry... that your mental issues must be acting up or something. It is absolutley crazy the way people percieve others.

OH, an Les-sorry we hijacked your blog for this off topic discourse- sometimes thats just the way we roll!MO

What he said! Yeah! And why is it that we with brain disease seem to get grouped in with junkies an alchoholics- as if this were some road we CHOSE to travel.

Andy- you make a very good point. We should start some kind of grass roots Lobby to be treated fairly, and not have our right to privacy violated in such a way. Throwing "mental illness" out there when reporting something makes about as much sense as mentioning ones penis size- what earthly difference does it make?!MO

One of the things that annoys me about the perpetuating stigma of mental illness is how the local news anchors report on some violent crime and then add, "Suspect is believed to be mentally ill." What does their medical condition have to do with the crime? Do reporters actually have time to interview the "suspect's" psychiatrist before they went to air with the story? Time to get a release of information from his or her doctors? Will the news folks also report on their cholesterol levels and childhood vaccinations?

I wonder if politicians who lie and resort to name-calling are considered mentally healthy. I suppose society is saying, "it's okay to be corrupt and have personality disorders, just don't get "caught". If you get caught, you have a problem and you need treatment for it; you're sick."

Welcome Les! Now, just a quick note: we are beset by spammers, so occasionally you'll come up on BLOGS which seem to make no sense-THOSE ARE THE SPAM MONKEYS AND WE CAN'T GET RID OF THEM-DO NOT CLICK ON THEIR SPAMS AS IT MIGHT CONNECT TO MEAN CYBER MONSTERS THAT WILL GO VIRAL.

(Of course, my blogs sometimes make no sense either, since i'm the resident ranter round these parts.)

But anyway, welcome and we hope to get to know you better! MO