Playing God, a dangerous game

I'm reading posts that are descriptions by people who are talking about bipolar disorder. There is sometimes a fine line between a disorder and normalcy. Actually, it's a spectrum between these poles. I am uncomfortable with black and white descriptions, which, ironically, is being used to characterize the thinking of people who presumably have bipolar disorder. I do acknowledge I have it and I say this at the risk of being dismissed. (It's happened with people who don't know me personally.) But I also say it because I hope people are getting professional help before deciding on a diagnosis. I have been fortunate to be treated by doctors whose understanding is nuanced by years of training and observation. Women, unfortunately, have often classically been misdiagnosed for many reasons. What is scary to me too is that some of this advice is not even considering some of the more physical manifestations of the disorder, such as disruptions of sleep, etc., signs that a trained doctor will use to make an objective diagnosis, as well as a chart tracking moods, etc. The informer is providing information as it applies to the way the SO experiences this person in the relationship. That is not the same thing as a medical diagnosis. Not that a SO's input is not considered in a diagnosis. In fact, it's very crucial. But only a doctor can properly make an accurate diagnosis and my concern would be that, in the absence of this, the spouse under amateur observation can become stigmatized and behavior can be reactions to what is prematurely determined to be the case, a premature decision based on unsound advice. I am reading a poster say that a woman with bipolar may not be able to talk about her feelings rationally, as an adult, and often has the reasoning of a child when it comes to explaining what she feels or has asserted. What? Some of this information is scary to me and the way it is presented is pre-modern-psychiatry-era. I know people have been hurt by people with this disorder and it's hard. But there are limitations one has to acknowledge unless there is some credential to back up certain statements. Reading some books and having a personal experience does not an expert make. At least be humble in the statements. Clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison's work has been helpful and informative to me. She's highly competent in her field, in fact, an expert, and has researched the subject extensively and has the disorder herself. Her memoir "An Unquiet Mind" is one of several works she has produced and gives a helpful walk-through of someone with BPD, from diagnosis, to illness, to meds, to tweaking meds, to living with the illness, including forming real relationships and having a career. There are people with full, rich, productive, relationally-competent lives that have BPD.

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2629979