There is such a thing as mental health privilege. Most people, by now, know what racial privilege is — it’s the idea that some races (namely, caucasian, in North America) enjoy certain privileges that other races do not. Racial privilege is due to prejudice and discrimination against those of a different race. Simply put, with my white skin, my life does not experience the same barriers as someone with dark skin might. Well, health privilege and mental health privilege exist too. These privileges are enjoyed by those with good health.
There’s a myth that people with bipolar disorder are brilliant. There’s a myth that people with bipolar disorder are geniuses. There’s a myth that bipolar disorder has made us “special.” None of this is true. People with bipolar disorder are just people with an illness. And like any other person battling any other illness, the illness may affect us, even greatly, but it does not define us entirely. People with bipolar disorder are just regular people and that’s okay.
Mental health is something that’s thought of as happening within oneself, but what if an artificial intelligence in the form of an app plus a wearable could help improve your mental health? What if an artificial intelligence could read your emotional state, learn about your challenges, and then give you specific tasks and tools to help you feel better? What if your own journey of self-discovery could be sped up using the latest in neuroscience, biofeedback, and cognitive behavioral therapy? At least one company and researcher say it’s possible today; so, let’s explore the ideas around emotional self-regulation and how artificial intelligence and mental health can mix. (At the end, I’m going to talk about Larimar’s exciting artificial intelligence, mental health-improving project. You can skip to that bit if you like by clicking here.)
There are websites that welcome suicide. Sure, they say they’re “pro-choice” when it comes to suicide, but, really, they’re welcoming the choice of suicide. And I think that when a site is welcoming of suicide, it is encouraging of suicide as well. When everyone on a site is suicidal and pressing forward towards suicide, it’s hard not to see it as a viable option, especially if you’re depressed or in distress already. I’m not sure I have an answer to the existence of pro-suicide sites, but I do have some information for their visitors.
I talk about serious mental illness a lot, but I have failed to answer the specific question, what is a serious mental illness. Today I’m going to do that. I’m also going to talk about why it’s important to separate those with a serious mental illness and not just lump everyone with a mental illness together. As a person with bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness, I do feel strongly about this.
Everyone experiences emotional pain, and sometimes that pain can be very difficult to bear. However, I posit that people with depression experience exaggerated emotional pain. Depression causes emotional pain in and of itself, of course, but what I’m talking about is regular, everyday emotional pain being exaggerated because of depression. This is similar to how depression worsens physical pain, which I have written about before.
Emotional blackmail can occur in any relationship, but, unfortunately, some people associate emotional blackmail with bipolar disorder (or another mental illness). I’ve had many people talk to me about this over the years. It’s extremely hard to deal with emotional blackmail no matter who’s doing it, but when emotional blackmail comes alongside bipolar disorder or another mental illness, really, it’s double-tough. Read on to learn about emotional blackmail and what you might want to do about it.
Did you know there are tags banned on Instagram? More to the point, did you know that hashtags for bipolar disorder, depression, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders and other mental health tags are banned on Instagram? Up until recently, I didn’t know this. Upon finding it out, however, I think it’s incredibly important to speak out against it. While I realize that Instagram may have the best of intentions with these bans, banning mental health/mental illness tags on Instagram is not the way to help people.
So-called “happy” experiences trigger my depression more than sad ones do. This includes everything from witnessing happy people to taking part in a happy event to watching something happy in a movie. All of these things can make me more immediately sad than seeing something depressing. This seems counterintuitive — even to me — but it is what happens in my daily life. It’s one of the ways that I know I experience major depressive episodes — episodes of an illness.
Psychology can harm your mental health in several ways. Some of you may have experienced this. In fact, just last week on Instagram, I posted an experience someone had that illustrated of type of this harm (more on this later). Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that psychologists are there to help, and certainly, not all psychologists will hurt your mental health, but some definitely do. I want to explore how I’ve seen psychologists hurt the mental health of others, even in spite of their best intentions.
I’m having a happy holiday with bipolar — at least, so far. There was a time when I didn’t think that was possible, but I’ve learned differently since then. This post isn’t about how great my life is or how you should feel bad about not having a happy bipolar holiday, this is about discussing how to have a happy bipolar holiday and how, if you can’t, that’s okay too.
Recently, I learned that the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can trace your call. I didn’t know this. But the thing I did know about the Lifeline, and other suicide hotlines is that they can save your life. It is not surprising to me that the Lifeline uses every tool at its disposal to save lives, and I guess tracing calls is one of those tools. Some people have a distinct problem with this. I suspect they are missing a certain perspective when the Lifeline traces calls: they are missing the perspective of someone who is actually trying to save a life.
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