There is a false societal narrative that hinders neurodivergent people from receiving the help they need. The narrative has created a divide, pushing those who struggle deeper into disconnection. Division and hindrance are solely manufactured by words.
When someone is angry, it’s easy to throw a label on them, call them bipolar, because our world has normalized using mental disorders as insults and adjectives.
Calling someone bipolar is so common that it has taken on a new meaning; now, when you hear bipolar, you think crazy, emotional, irrational and maybe even violent because that’s the picture we have painted.
The disorder can be hereditary. It runs in my family. I have watched and listened to my own people struggle.
I had to bear witness to some of my biggest heros growing up, living with bipolar disorder, fighting a silent fight to stay afloat.
Real, living people have to work harder to fulfill daily life tasks that take most people no time at all.
But it’s not just some people. The World Health Organization estimates 37 million people have bipolar disorder.
Millions of people have this disorder, and because it’s a funny thing to say when someone is acting out, it is taboo to talk about.
Sometimes these words aren’t always used with harmful intention — it is only human nature to pick up on new slang that lands in daily conversation.
It might not even be new vocabulary; it might just be how your siblings or friends or parents just always said things.
But whether it’s old jargon that’s muscle memory now or new trending phrases that roll off the tongue, if it’s hurting someone, we should stop.
I don’t just mean hurt feelings. I am talking about a social barrier that prevents people who struggle from speaking out, from seeking help.
Something seemingly unimportant, like dialogue, has driven a wedge where space shouldn’t even be.
Over time, the word has been watered down to a synonym for crazy. When someone is diagnosed with the condition, it has built-in assumptions: if you have bipolar disorder, then you must be dangerous.
Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is a mood disorder and mental health condition. Those who have it experience intense periods of mania followed by heavy depressive episodes as well.
Bipolar disorder does not mean anyone is inherently aggressive — that is a lens created by the daily misuse of the term.
This is a barrier that prevents someone from seeking help. No one wants to be seen as crazy, emotional, irrational and maybe even violent.
The hardest part about the situation is that it is fixable. We, as a society, have created the negative connotation surrounding mental disorders with our words.
Before you are so quick to call an angry person bipolar or psychotic or any other disorder, remember that your words matter.
Yes, that one word in that one sentence exchanged between your closest friend matters.
Each time a mental disorder is used as an insult, the hole is dug deeper. Remember that real, living people are stuck on the other side of this canyon of disconnect that our society has dug.
Is a word in your vocabulary so important to you that it’s worth isolating someone?
The symptoms of a mental disorder can be managed, but they will always be hard — that’s not something we can change right now.
But we can change our words. The struggle doesn’t have to be silent. People with disorders shouldn’t be bracing for judgment when they confide in others.
Choose another word.
