Bipolar in a bipolar country
I’m back after a self-imposed break from being online, both for work and personal reasons. The personal reasons being coping with a depressive episode caused by bipolar disorder.
There’s still a stigma related to mental health issues. Although I don’t want to be defined as that guy with bipolar, I’ve finally decided I’m just going to come out and say it instead of pussyfooting around it (one of the few examples of when censors will let you say pussy on American TV, btw!).
When I had to have my wisdom teeth out, I didn’t tell people I was gone for personal reasons.
When my wife wore a cast on her leg for six weeks, she didn’t tell people she just wasn’t feeling well.
When my mother suffered from migraines, she didn’t tell people she was having health-related problems.
So when someone is suffering from depression, they should be able to say it.
When I found out I was living with bipolar, so much of my life made a lot more sense (including why “I Go To Extremes” by Billy Joel resonated so much with me!) and allowed me to get treatment so I could start managing the symptoms and greatly increase my quality of life. If you’re suffering, there’s absolutely no shame in going to a therapist or psychiatrist to try to figure out what’s wrong.
I’m doing much better this week, but I was already dealing with a worse than usual bout of depression this season (winter is usually harder for me, like many people with bipolar). I think this time was worse than it has been in years because, hmmm, let’s see what’s been happening. That’s right — the President tried to incite insurrectionists and elected members of Congress to stage a coup. It failed miserably, but the fact that so many of our supposed leaders and Capitol Police officers (serve and protect, right…) was depressing, literally.
We live in bipolar times. One day, we get news that the normally-Republican Georgia rejected two racist candidates, one who hangs out with a Ku Klux Klan leader and another who photoshops his opponent to make his skin look darker. Maybe there is hope for America after all.
Then, less that 24 hours later, our fascist, racist president Trump successfully incited thousands of people to invade the Capitol Building, with the apparent complicity of Capitol Police and the tacit acceptance of over 100 members of Congress.
Sometimes, the Biden team announces positive policies like his intention to go back to the Paris accords and cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Other times, Biden brags on Twitter that he will never ban fracking.
The constant up and down, which seems to be cycling more and more rapidly since Trump was elected, is hard to deal with. But I’m very fortunate to have a loving family at home to support me during my ups and downs, and a loving virtual family as well to support me during this country’s ups and downs.
Here’s to hoping things will be much less crazy and more positive for both US politics and me in the rest of 2021.
