What does this title mean you may be thinking... Well, there can be many different reactions involved in any scenario. However, when you tell someone you think they might be bipolar or depressed because of x y, and z, or vice versa, someone tells you that, it definitely can be a touchy subject for all parties involved. I'll talk a little bit about my most relevant personal experience telling family and friends that I might be bipolar. Firstly I spoke with my parents, I told my dad one day and I didn't expect him to believe me at first, but ended up being exactly the case. I hid my symptoms pretty well, not saying there weren't signs but nothing big enough to result in my father truly thinking I had bipolar at the time. (I had almost always struggled with depression when I was younger and I think he thought whatever was going on would most likely be depression.) His first response was stuck in my brain for a long time, it went something like this, "People with that disorder have a very hard life." Little did he know he was about to find out how difficult my life truly was balancing such extreme mood swings and hallucinations. There is no blame on my dad for not believing it or not wanting to believe it because I can't imagine how scary that must be to find that out as a parent, but eventually, it seems like he has come to terms with the situation. I think the most important phrase in those sentences was "no blame". Using blame or unhealthy, unproductive language in times like these will run you into many problems. Another story I have is telling my four friends at school as well as my teacher. It wasn't necessarily easy because there are times I personally don't even feel like I have it. My best friend at the time iced me out for a day or two, I never expected someone to react in this way. I feel like if I had researched more about reactions to this matter I would have been more prepared. However, she did text me back and said that she was super sorry for how she handled things and she reacted in that way because she had never dealt with hearing that someone was going through something so heavy. I think what's important to remember is that we are all human and every human is going to have a different reaction to news or the suspected idea of having bipolar or depression. There is no one way to react to news but always think before you speak and if you are too upset to respond at the moment, talking through things later is always a valid option.
