Oh my God! She's Crazy!

(The following is a serious issue to start my blog with, but I have to start somewhere. I'm not quite sure how short or long a good blog post is, so bear with me on this starter.)

It is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence that I hear, in the general public as well as from family and friends, "Well, he (she) must be bipolar. He (she) is CRAZY!"

There are many problems with this declaration. To start, people need to do research on the topic before making such a dramatic remark.  Being bipolar does not, in fact, mean a person is crazy. What does it mean? It means a person has a mood disorder. That's all.

For a brief summary, there are now three types of bipolar disorder. I am not a doctor, so I won't go into great detail, but the three types are: Bipolar I, Bipolar II, and Bipolar NOS.

Bipolar I is the most "severe" of the the three. Individuals in this class have extreme bouts of mania (aka exreme happiness and energy) and depression (sadness, crying, lack of energy, etc.).

Bipolar II is similar to Bipolar I in that there are separate episodes of mania and depression, but they are milder and the periods of one mood or the other may be shorter in length.

Bipolar NOS (not otherwise specified) is the most recent classification, and is considered the mildest of the three. Individuals in this category experience continual changes of "mania" and "depression" (one day is "good", the next is "bad").

Guess what?! Yours truly has been diagnosed with Bipolar NOS.

Some of you are probably surprised, and others of you are probably thinking, "Oh... It all makes sense now! I see why she's either putting up sweet pictures of Jayden or going off on a tangent on Facebook!" And that's okay, but consider these questions: "Have you had a great day where everything is going your way, and you want to share the news?" "Have you had a crappy day that you just wish would start over?"

If you haven't had both of these days, I'm a little concerned. Does having both mean you're bipolar? Well, most likely no, but maybe you will think twice before saying you're "normal" and someone with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is "crazy".

Just like you probably wouldn't call your happy-go-lucky sister or your down-in-the dumps friend "crazy", don't throw that label on someone who has a little of both.

I'll eventually examine different topics related to my final thought, but here it is for now-

When you say something in a mixed group, it is so important to realize that not everyone in the group has the same view as you may on a particular topic.

More than likely, at least one individual in the group either has a personal experience related to the topic, or has a loved one that does.

I am amazed at the number of people who make racist, homophobic, religious, or similar remarks because they automatically assume that every single person they come into contact with believes interacial relationships are wrong, gay people are disgusting and solely cause AIDS, Hispanic(Latino) people are Mexicans, and bipolar people should be locked up.

Now, I advise you to take this information to heart before this married-to-a-girl, Mommy-of-a-Latino (Venezuelan), bipolar girl goes CRAZY on you!