“Maybe, ya know, there’s no such thing as crazy. And being diagnosed with a mental illness doesn’t mean you’re crazy. But maybe it means you’re just more sensitive to what most people can’t see or feel. Maybe, no one’s really crazy, everyone is just a little bit mad. How much depends on where you fall on the spectrum. How much depends on how lucky you are.”
My wonderful boyfriend sent this video to me this morning, and kept telling me to watch it because he knew I would like it. He sends me videos ALL the time, and often times, they’re pretty boring (sorry babe!). But this one.. this one still has me smiling so big.
I’ve told people that having bipolar disorder makes me a more sensitive person, but in a good way. I am more sensitive to someone’s thoughts and feelings, and can relate to them much more than your average person. I may have a little bit of “crazy” in me, but that’s what makes me, ME. My passion, my intensity, my drive, my emotions… those all make up Lyndsay. I think without bipolar, I’d be boring. I’d much rather be intense than boring. 😉
What do you think about what Joshua Walters shared on this video?
lyndsinreallife
Hey Lynds,
I don’t agree entirely with the wholesale ‘positive rebranding’ movement. I think it makes light of how deep and dark depression, O.C.D ruminations and loops e.t.c are. I agree that when depressed I am acutely aware and have a heightened sense of tragedy and misery – I can’t say that it should be universally branded as positive. Plenty of successful suicides would agree, if they could, I’m sure.
My biggest issue with my illness is that as well as hypomanic and depressed sensetivity to things other people aren’t – I’m also hypersensetive to things that don’t really exist. I see attacks and insults where there aren’t any, and while I don’t think I’m Jesus – I see positive indicators, encouragements and beneficial outcomes that also don’t exist.
Where I completely agree with the guy though, is that the understanding of mental illness needs to be completely re-engineered. Rather than seeing it as a wholesale disability, categorised as having something MISSING or completely broken – especially in the case of bipolarity it just needs to be seen as a different way of life. I experience life differently to a person who doesn’t have bipolar.
I sincerely believe that there needs to be a new place carved out for people with Bipolar in which they can engage in as many different fields as necessary until they find something that can help channel their mania, and soften the onset of depression. Anything that doesn’t result in this isn’t therapy as far as I’m concerned.
I am insane by definition. I’m not dangerous, or violent, or completely self-destructive. It’s not that I make NO sense all of the time. I don’t flip out at random every day. Never-the-less – I am insane. It’s only by admitting this and moving from a position of strength in acknowledgement of my illness that I can really begin to live a life of a person with mental illness.
I don’t believe that I can be ‘fixed’ or ‘cured’. This is an integral element of who I am. The line between mental illness and personality in my case is completely blurred. My life was a world of sh*t when I tried to live the life of a sane person. Living my appropriate life has made sense of almost all of it leading up to now. Looking forward whilst acknowledging my illness – the lenses are a lot less foggy.
Well, that turned out to be a novel 😛 Sorry about that.
All the best,
H&J
I agree with you completely. I was so focused on how awesome the last minute of this was that I forgot about the beginning haha. I don’t agree with the positive re-branding either. Because you’re exactly right, it makes light of how dark and deep the depression is. When in a depression (like last summer), there is NO way I would ever look at bipolar as positive. And yes, I am more sensitive to things that are NOT there as well. I tend to twist people’s words and truly believe that I said is what they said, and so on.
And you’re right, we cannot be “fixed” or “cured,” and there is nothing WRONG with us. We are simply different. Our reality is different. Not better or worse, just not the same as someone who is sane. When I accepted that my bipolar is my personality, that this is who I am, that’s when breakthroughs started to happen. That’s when I learned to truly love myself. And appreciate the good things that come from having bipolar, while understanding the bad.
Thank you for your response <3 So good to be in touch with you.