My Illness is Inside My Brain

Lately I have been bothered by words and some statements used to describe mental illness and bipolar disorder.

I have created a list of different words used to describe bipolar disorder and mental illness describing how some of them are inaccurate to me and do not fit with the severe bipolar disease that I live with daily.

I believe using better and more accurate terminology when talking about mental illness will help society understand the seriousness and severity of mental illness.

People newly diagnosed will seek help sooner if they understand they have an illness that requires medical attention and treatment versus feeling like they just have a mental health ISSUE that they should seemingly be able to solve on their own.

Terminology

BIPOLAR DISORDER

• is a mental disorder marked by alternating periods of elation and depression.
• a mental disorder characterized by extreme shifts in mood, with fluctuations in energy and activity levels.
• is defined as a person with manic depressive illness, a syndrome affecting the mood that is characterized by sometimes abrupt swings from deep depression to periods of manic excitability.
• is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

Historical medical reports define manic depressive as someone swinging between mania and depression and dates as far back as the second century.

An example of a bipolar condition is someone who alternates between depression and madness.

The definition described above using the word madness creates a very negative use of the word increasing the stigma of bipolar and mental illness.

• BIPOLAR is a person or things with two poles or two opposite opinions or traits.
• DISORDER is a state of confusion that disturbs the order of the regular or normal functions of an illness that disrupts normal physical functions.
• MANIA is a mental illness marked by periods of great excitement, euphoria, delusions, and over activity, an excessive enthusiasm or desire, excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, disorganization of behavior, and elevation of mood.
• Synonyms of mania are madness, derangement, dementia, insanity, lunacy, psychosis, mental illness, delirium, frenzy, hysteria, wildness
• Hyperactivity is the condition of being abnormally or extremely active.
• Disorganization is lack of proper planning and control and the inability to plan one’s activities efficiently.
• Mood is a temporary state of mind or feeling.
• DEPRESSION is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities and sometimes may feel as if life in not worth living anymore. 
• Madness is the state of being mentally ill, especially severely. Having extremely foolish behavior.
• Synonyms for madness are insanity, mental illness, dementia, derangement, lunacy instability, mania, psychosis, informal craziness, folly, foolishness, idiocy, stupidity, insanity, silliness, informal craziness, a state of frenzied or chaotic activity, chaos, craziness, uproar, turmoil, disorder.
• Insanity is the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness, extreme foolishness or having irrationality.
• Foolishness is having a lack of good sense or judgement or stupidity.

Again the word madness was used to describe a mental illness term we still use today.

MENTAL ILLNESS refers to a wide range of mental health conditions or disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.

• Mental is relating to the mind and to disorders of the mind.
• Illness is a disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind and unhealthy condition of the body or mind.

Those were the many words and definitions used to describe Bipolar Disorder and Mental Illness and some words used can stigmatize people with bipolar disorder.

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE

• Mental Health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.
• Health is the state of being free from illness or injury and a person’s mental or physical condition.
• Psychological is a state of someone who has emotional or behavioral problems serious enough to require psychiatric intervention, agitation. a mental state of extreme emotional disturbance.
• Emotional is arousing or characterized by intense feelings, having feelings that are easily excited and openly displayed.
• Psychiatric is relating to mental illness or its treatment.
• ISSUE IS:

1. a questionnaire for inquiry consideration or solution
2. an intricate unsettled question
3. a subject or problem that people are thinking and talking about
4. important topic or problem for debate or discussion
5. the action of supplying or distributing an item for use, sale or official purposes
6. a problem
7. a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome

My severe Bipolar Disorder is a mental illness that is in my BRAIN and is a DISEASE.

Brain is an organ of soft nervous tissue contained in the skull of vertebrates, functioning as the coordination center of sensation and intellectual and nervous activity

Disease is a disorder of structure or function in a human animal or plant especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

I definitely do not have a MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE! I feel like those words belittle, soften and lessen the severe symptoms related to bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.

I do not just have a mood disorder but my severe bipolar does effect my moods.

The disease I have inside my brain causes a chemical imbalance causing my mood poles to sometimes change rapidly and to extreme levels.

I have an illness called bipolar disorder.

My illness is inside my brain.

I have a very severe brain disease.

Thank you for reading and hearing my words. I hope this helped someone.

Have a very happy, love-filled and blessed day today and everyday forever and always.

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