Why vocabulary matters when talking about bipolar disorder
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“My car’s engine died again for the third time. This thing is bipolar.”
Wait. Mechanical engine and oil can now experience a mental health disorder?
We seem to bank this word in our Adjectives folder, ready to whip it out as Tim Bailey shouts at us through our television screens, that we’ll be receiving a month’s worth of rain in the following three days, only to find that we had a sunny weekend. ‘Aha! Sydney’s weather is bipolar!’ And as my friend with the broken car engine believes, it applies to her shitty Toyota too.
In young Australians aged 16-24 years, it is estimated that approximately 3.2% of males and 3.6% of females have had bipolar disorder in their lifetime. And about 50% of people who develop bipolar disorder will do so by the time they are in their early to mid-20s.
What does that mean for us? It means, there is a need for us to stop using this word so sporadically that there may be a chance of us offending someone with the disorder. In the same way that we so frequently use the words, ‘crazy’, ‘insane’, ‘lame’ and ‘gay’ as every day, normalised language, we subconsciously create damage a lot more than we think.
Damage? What damage? People are just sensitive, you say? It’s just a joke, hey? Well, the more we see bipolar disorder as a genetically determined brain disease, the less we will recognise it as a reaction to unfortunate circumstances. Throwing words like ‘bipolar’ around so freely encourages alienation, pessimism and deep despair for those who do have the illness. And if you don’t know what pessimism looks like, just look at the latest meme trends and you’ll find that pessimism is #trending.
Bipolar disorder is characterised by fluctuations in mood. Episodes of depression and mania can be followed by periods of elation. The early stages are known as hypomania and if it develops further, the person may be amid a ‘manic’ episode. While sharp elevations in mood may sound appealing in principle, the reality is that mania can be associated with a range of impulsive behaviours, including substance use, promiscuity and excessive spending, all of which can have severe consequences.
It does matter how we talk and think about mental health. Get it wrong, and people can end up being hurt, misled or in recent times, triggered, as what Netflix hit ’13 Reasons Why’ has sparked for some viewers. We have the responsibility of how we discuss mental health, and if it is ever going to be achieved, we have a long journey ahead of us.