My late (estranged) husband put us through so much hell with his bipolar and alcoholic behavior that I still get upset just reading this article. It made bipolar sound so benign. His behaviors were not benign.
He finally took his own life, but at least he didn’t take mine or the kids, which we were afraid he would do.
As someone who has been victimized by mentally ill people in my life, I can sympathize and I fully support you. I am sick of the irony that eccentrics are labeled maniacs while the real crazy people are getting away with murder.
There were times when I feared homicidal possibilities with my mother. Fortunately, she didn’t get to that level of severity until we kids were teenagers and able to protect ourselves against that possibility.
When discussing mental health problems (or any personality/behavioral issues) it is impossible to keep any single variable in isolation. How do you separate some of this stuff? Can’t.
Agree with you, bipolars can be WAY past just being assholes.
The only bipolar I know a lot about, the sister of a friend, would run down the street naked, walk off and leave cars running with the keys in the ignition in strange towns, throw your purse, cell phones out of the car because ‘they’ were using them to follow her, etc.
Couldn’t keep her institutionalized - she didn’t want it - and she ALWAYS stopped taking her meds.
Finally, her mind deteriorated to the point that when a family member would write her a check, she could no longer write well enough or at all to endorse the check.
They originally removed all firearms from her home but she had an unknown gun squirreled away somewhere that, while she still had some ability to reason, she put in a gun safe. She eventually hacked the gun safe open with a hatchet and shot herself.