Notes from Underground: Life as a Bipolar Bear
This particular cub has something called Mixed Bipolar Rapid Cycling. Simply put it means both moods exist simultaneously and the manic piece escalates very quickly. A common misconception is that manic equals happy. Often while manic the bear is told how content she appears to be. What is not understood is that when the cub returns to her den she is engaged in frenetic physical activity in manic mode but is at the same time experiencing all the worst symptoms of depressive mode and battling the overpowering urge to swallow every pill in the house. Even without the accompanying severe depression, extreme manic mode can be hazardous to life and wellbeing. During one memorable manic episode the bear could not eat or sleep for a week and nearly starved to death. Another notable manic outing involved spending thousands of dollars on Ebay and having the bank stop her credit card twice due to suspicion of theft.
An observation often made of the cub is that she is an unusually bright bear. This is due to the frequent correlation between high intelligence and mental illness. The cub’s response to this is, “Instead of being smart and miserable I wish I’d been born dumb and happy.”
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Laurie, as a daddy bear one my cubs was like this and it was hard for me to understand being this strong provider who only purpose was to put food on the table. Your insight has helped this old grouchy bear to be aware of what my cub has and is still going through. A lovely blog which some of us old bears need to read and change our grumpy old ways. Ty pat.
Oh , Pat ,your words brought tears to my eyes ,God bless you and your cub/s.
Patak so hard to be all things to all people, a hard road to travel my friend, all the best papa bear….xx
Laurie, what a touching insight into what it’s like to suffer from bipolar .
I …like many others have not had much knowledge about this illness ,I only knew of the extreme moods of highs and lows ,never knew that even when the mood is high ,the sufferer is still in great distress …I also wrongly thought high meant “happy “.
Thank you for writing this blog , it helps a great deal to understand what people living with mental illness may be going through .
My heart goes out to all who suffer from a mental illness , their families and friends . Including my family and my friends .
Laurie, I have a dear friend who is bi-polar. For the period in which we were close, I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was in a manic mode.
I thought she was just super productive; getting up early to clean, walking for miles, etc. She did buy a lot of items with her considerable disposable income which I wrongly interpreted as just being over generous.
I should have known better having had a brother in law who was bi polar.
Sadly, they had to take her off her lithium and never succeeded in stabalizing her and she wound up suicidal and now is unreachable. She plumetted downward and only then did I see the other side of it all.
Oh Laurie, your words speak a 1000 times to me. I have 3 baby Cubs like this so Pat I totally get where your coming from. My daughter is very very much the same as this cub. Every day I try to walk in my 3 Cubs shoes trying to help where I can. Luckily with my job I get lots of mental health training but it’s different when the heart strings are attached. Not easy to make a decision without emotion when it’s your children. Some days I’d like to run and hide as I’m mentally tired trying to help them but then I step back and say…..omg…how hard must it be for them. Your are a gem Laurie and never doubt that…keep writing your blogs and stay connected…you have a talent…please when you see that cub give her a huge hug from me and tell her to hang in there she’s doing a great job xx
Laurie, your bravery and your attitude to manic behaviour does us all well to realise this behaviour, as an illness I, like many others believed that those who have this health problem when they are in this manic phase where happy and healthy and getting on with their lives, thank you for enlightening us ,now we can have more understanding of friends and family that suffer from this illness….
your a very talented and informative girl and i hope you continue with all the blogs etc: you place here, you are very intelligent and informative and we love you very much ,Lani xxxx.((((hugs))))
Many thanks to everyone for your very thoughtful comments. To those who have family and friends with the illness, mental health support, education and advocacy groups include National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in the US, and the international organizations of International Bipolar Foundation, The Equilibrium Bipolar Foundation, MindFreedom International, and Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR).
Oh Laurie,
This was incredible writing ………….can’t say any more
Thank you so much .
Gyps.