Insight into bipolar disorder is critical. Insight into anyone’s life is a good idea but for those with a mental illness, it’s vital. It’s a big part of what makes managing bipolar disorder possible. But so many people don’t have insight into bipolar disorder. Why is that?

What Is Insight?

According to the Collins English Dictionary, “insight’ in psychology is defined as:

  1. The capacity for understanding one’s own or another’s mental processes
  2. The immediate understanding of the significance of an event or action

“Insight” is also defined as the following in psychiatry according to the Collins English Dictionary:

  1. The ability to understand one’s own problems, sometimes used to distinguish between psychotic and neurotic disorders

And one more, this time from The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, “insight” is defined as:

  1. Understanding, especially an understanding of the motives and reasons behind one’s actions

What Is Insight in Bipolar Disorder?

Of course, none of the above definitions relate insight to bipolar disorder specifically, but that’s easily enough done.

According to Natasha’s English Dictionary of Bipolar Disorder, “insight” is defined as:

  1. The capacity for understanding how bipolar disorder affects thinking in the brain and in the mind
  2. The immediate understanding of the significance of an event or action both on the individual and on one’s illness
  3. The ability to understand one’s own problems and the problems associated with and complicated by bipolar disorder
  4. Understanding, especially an understanding of one’s own motives and reasons and how bipolar disorder affects the motives and reasons behind one’s actions

Natasha’s English Dictionary of Bipolar Disorder (NEDBD) really raises the bar on what it is to have insight.

A Lack of Insight in People with Bipolar Disorder

If you have bipolar disorder, insight is critical to living well but so many people do not have insight into bipolar disorder. Find out why.Let me start off by saying that many people with bipolar disorder are plenty insightful, so let’s get that right, but there’s also plenty that aren’t. And there are reasons that some with bipolar disorder aren’t insightful.

  1. Anosognosia – Anosognosia is a fancy word, I know, and your average person hasn’t heard of it; but, anosognosia is actually the medical term for a clinical lack of insight. People with anosognosia can’t do the above because they, typically, don’t believe they have a mental illness. And this isn’t their fault. This is a neurological condition. It’s not denial, it’s actually a result of changes to the brain. Anosognosia is not just related to bipolar disorder (bipolar psychosis) but it also occurs in illnesses like Alzheimer’s.
  2. Substance use/abuse – Substance abuse occurs in more than half (almost 60%) of all people with bipolar disorder. This is not a coincidence. People with bipolar disorder are looking to numb the pain of the disorder and they’re doing it the best way they know how – with alcohol and other drugs. And these drugs do exactly that – they numb. They make it so you don’t know what’s going on. You can’t really be insightful when you brain is in a drug-induced fog.
  3. The wrong psychiatric medication – Much like you can’t be insightful when you’re drinking or drugging your brain away, you can’t be insightful when you’re swimming in the wrong kind of prescribed chemicals either. Zombies are not known for their insight.
  4. One’s own psychology – Some people are prone to personal insight while others aren’t. That’s just sort of the way the cookie crumbles. (Environment and upbringing obviously have something to do with this as well.)
  5. Never knowing anything different – And finally, it can be really hard to be insightful about your own situation if you have only ever known a mentally ill reality. For some, mental illness starts at a young age and for those people, mental illness is their only experience.

So if you don’t happen to be insightful about your bipolar disorder, don’t worry, you’re in good, and crowded, company.

And there is a way to change that.

If you’d like to increase the insight you have into bipolar disorder, check out my next article where I talk about how to develop insight into bipolar disorder.