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Finding The Walls Of The Ravine

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Imagine that you live in the bottom of a deep ravine. There is no pathway you can use to walk out. There is no rope you can use to climb up. There is no escaping the ravine so you learn to live off of what you have at the bottom with you and you maintain yourself. You aren’t happy, but you haven’t reached a point where you feel like giving up in the most permanent way. So, you live on, and one day you wake up and wings have sprouted from your back overnight. At first you’re shocked and scared but then you realize that this could finally be your chance to escape. The euphoria you felt in that moment would seem endless.
You run outside to test these wings and realize that they are very weak. They barely lift you off of the ground. Before …show more content…

This extreme fluctuation of moods puts an unrelenting strain on people who are affected by this disorder. Often, bipolar patients have trouble maintaining personal relationships, cannot manage their energy levels, and are randomly incapable of functioning at their normal standards or abilities. When a patient is experiencing a “high” episode they often feel so invincible that they may put themselves in dangerous situations without a second thought, and when they are having a depressed episode they may feel so down that they no longer see a point in participating in their normal life. Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness, but the term bipolar is not colloquially used in a way that reflects that. The colloquial usage of “bipolar” equates being bipolar to the changing of the weather, or the wishy-washy opinions of people who can’t decide where they’d like to eat today. The trivial use of this term undermines the severity of bipolar disorder and creates an environment where people affected by bipolar disorder are presented with two options: having their disease undermined by those around them, or being alienated by those around them because people fear what they do not understand. In order to create an environment where bipolar patients can feel comfortable the term “bipolar”

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