I’ve heard this sentiment before, and I wonder what the stygma is with saying someone is manic-depressive. I have a colleague (and friend) who is treated for bipolar disorder, so I asked him. He replied, “It’s just a bunch of P.C. crap.”. Well, O.K., but WHY? “I don’t know.” was his response.
So, I put it to you guys. What’s so bad about manic-depressive disorder that the name has changed to bipolar?
“We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
I think there’s a certain perjorative tone to “manic-depressive” that isn’t there with “bi-polar disorder.”
I think a lot of the perjorative sense, though, comes from time. I suspect at one time, “retarded mental development” was simply an accurate description. But “retarded” now is regarded as an insensitive insult, and “mentally challenged” seems to be the way to go.
Well, I would agree with you except in my 35 years on this planet, I have never heard the term used perjoratively. I have heard retarded, schizzo, psycho, crippled, and so on used perjoratively; but never manic-depressive. It certainly isn’t a school yard favorite in my neck of the woods. As a matter of fact there are far too many syllables for your average redneck to use.
When was it "oficially’ changed, and by whom? And, of course, WHY?
“We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
What I was trying to say is that the average joe (redneck or otherwise) doesn’t know the difference between “maniac” and “manic”. Somewhere along the line the psychiatric community decided to remove the chance of confusion by changing the name of the disorder.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
If you have ever had the misfortune to know one of these mentally ill folks, you wouldn;t really care too much about the name of the disorder. You would just wish you hadn’t met them.
The way I had it explained to me Bi-polar is a more accurate description of the disease. the name and definition was pretty much limited to the classic symptoms of the disease eg. swinfgs of moods from depression to mania and back again. Unfortunately not all people who have bi-polar disorder manifest these classic symptoms. A lot of them tend to spend more time at one extreme rather than switching from one pole to the other. I know someone who usually exhibited the symptoms of depression with only an occasional bout of mania. The name change was due in part so that they could include people who don’t fit the classic profile, but they still don’t have only epsisodes of mania, for example.
Keith
I don’t want to get into a flame war here, but it is a disorder. That is why they treat it. It is not preferable to have bipolar disorder. That is not to say that people who are bipolar can’t possibly be good people. In fact they can be a lot of fun when manic.
Bricker et al., are you trying to argue that it is good to be bipolar?
(note to self: You’re gonna be sorry you posted to this topic…)
Um, as a bi-polar person myself, I will cheerfully admit to being something of a danger. I find myself having to sit on my hands in an effort not to throttle people who make blanket comments about mental illness, especially comments using the word “defect”.
However, I don’t ascribe any moral or value judgement to the condition itself; it is no more good or bad than any other physical condition. Is it good to have diabetes? Not necessarily, but having it doesn’t make the person bad (or good, for that matter). I wouldn’t want to have diabetes, but I don’t shun or say rude things about those who do. So you see, it’s not the condition that might make me violent, it’s the attitudes I sometimes confront in society.
A mental illness is no more a defect than any other sort of an illness. Sure, my brain does not happen to produce a stable amount of seratonin over time. So what? It’s chemically correctable. My mom’s body produces antibodies that attack her joints (rheumatoid arthritis), and there’s pretty much nothing she can do about it; it just hurts, hurts, hurts. Which is worse?
And you, you have a bad personality. I’d certainly consider that to be a defect.
See what I’ve been driven to? I’m already sorry and I haven’t even hit the button…
As to the OP, I concur that the term Manic-Depressive has negative connotations that are not necessarily in line with the reality of the condition, and that the term BiPolar gives more space for differentiation between degrees and symptoms (I’m type II, for example). “BiPolar” showed up in the 80’s, I believe, and is now the more accepted term. As with most changes of this nature, it wasn’t instantaneous: all the psychiatrists didn’t just get together one day and say, “Hey guys, new term! It’ll confuse the masses for awhile.”
I don’t really have a mission to prove this point. My first wife was bipolar/schizoaffective. She did many, many dreadfull things and I was told by her doc that this was typical. I am highly biased, but clearly do not have the credentials to make blanket statements about the disorder.
I appologize. I was out of line. I just can’t get over the experience I had with my bipolar ex. I am relying on what mental health specialists told me at the time, but I certainly can’t vouch for the accuracy of those statements.
Well, if they said she was bipolar and schizoaffective they weren’t very knowledgeable, since you can’t have both diagnoses at the same time, by definition. Your problem is either primarily mood related (BP) or primarily psychotic with mood features (schizoaffective).
Well it’s nice to know that everyone who has ever known me wishes they had never met me. UndeadDude, I’ll grant you a divorce if you want to leave me. I’ll just go curl up in the closet now so I don’t inflict myself on anyone.
I think it is more than just pc. It is also an effort to de-fuse the often strong reaction to the original term. Although manic-depressive is certainly the best description, IMO, there is still a real stigma having to do with any sort of mental disorder. Witness the difficulty of getting insurance plans to open up payment for mental illness. They’ll pay if your bones break or if your liver, kidney or heart fail; they’ll pay if your brain blood supply isn’t right, but not if your neuro-transmitters don’t work right. Most insurance limits on mental health issues are laughable.
Opal, that’s not what’s going on here, not at all.
Cut yourself a break here, and us too.
It’s not an easy thing you’re going through, and it’s not easy for other people to see you going through it. This is true both for people that care about you and people that don’t know you. It’s just a damn hard thing, very scary for some, too. People tend to react negatively to things that scare them.
Mostly people just want you to get the stuff you need and to get better.