PSA: Lingo and you!

[lenainverse]

So a bit ago, when I got all puffed up because I passed my LCSW-C exam, I made mention that The licensure also gives me the right - nay, the duty - to bitchslap anyone who uses the word "bipolar" in an incorrect context. And someone responded to my taunts MWAHAHA! very insightfully asked me what the correct usage was. I meant to write this up

Comments

[crystalwren_fic]

It's interesting that you think that Bipolar is sometimes misdiagnosed as PST; my father, bless him, has been diagnosed as both several years ago.

One of the things that prevented a diagnosis, aside from his firm belief that the only mental illness is full-blown schizophrenia and the like, is that he had mania for many years straight but the down either manifested oddly or did not manifest at all. As the head examiner said, he's one for the textbooks.

He comes from an unusual family, with a strong background of mathematical/engineering/musical geniuses (yah, I think so too) and a strong background of behaviour that is either sociopathy/psycopathy or something that looks very like in a certain light. His father wasn't a bit of a bastard; he was a spectacular bastard. We won't get into details, but let's just say that in a nation full of shell-shocked war veterans, he was notable. My father drove his mother insane; he only slept for two hours a night even as a baby; he was a Duracell baby. He kept going and going and going

[crystalwren_fic]

He was always difficult for me to deal with. He was my best friend one minute, the next he'd fly into bellowing rages. He could be incredibly manipulative. On one occasion he put a hammer through the wall when I pissed him off. (Still hold a grudge about that; it was his own bloody fault that things went wrong and the bastard blamed me!) Things got very, very intense when he finally retired. I'm told that it isn't uncommon for manic/bipolars to focus on one person. And he focused on me. The pressure, the temper tantrums, the drastic switches of mood...the bullying, manipulation...dear god, the never ending pressure. He finally flipped completely one night. He went completely off the handle at something I'd said. I'd spent a week hiding in my room because everytime he saw me he'd rip me to pieces. And I *cannot stand* being told I'm stupid. So that's what he did. And me being me with an ASD, I had utterly no idea how to avoid setting him off. His behaviour was something I'd seen before, of course, but never so intense, so fucking

[crystalwren_fic]

Wep; mistake there. First corpse-laying out at ten years old, not five. Misinformation unintentional.

[lenainverse]

I'm jaded, but no so much that people's pain won't effect me. *hugs* I feel terrible for you and your dad for going through something so awful.

I also get mad when I hear people dismiss serious disorders like Bipolar or PTSD. It's infuriating. What, do they think people just *want* to be miserable? To me, overuse of the words is the same as dismissing them...the meaning gets watered down and it's just another adjective to people, so when they hear "I'm diagnosed as Bipolar" they think "yeah, who isn't? Big deal." Not okay at all because it is an extremely big deal. ARGH.