Bipolar Disorder and Interpersonal Connections
Hello, all you wonderful BD Community folks! I hope when youre reading this that you are having a super positive day.
I was looking back through the posts here in our lovely little corner of the world, and I saw a theme that comes up over and over again. I wonder if its worth repeating and putting a new start to the conversation in a new thread to start us thinking about it now. I think it is!
It seems that a lot of us are concerned (rightly so) about how our relationships with other people play out. Whether its how we deal with being in a romantic connection, interacting with bosses or coworkers, or handling the demands of parenthood while managing our Bipolar symptoms, there are a lot of worries poured out here into the Forum.
*How do you feel about engaging with friends or romantic partners while you manage the BD? Are you scared to divulge your diagnosis? How do you know when and if its the right time? Are you worried that if (or once) you share your condition with others that you will be rejected or have it held against you?
*How do you balance your emotional needs with the other needs of your close relationships? Do you keep your self care and personal needs at the forefront, or do you place the needs of the relationship before your own? Is it possible to find balance?
*Does or would your concerns about passing BD genetics to your offspring cause you concern? Also, do you worry about handling the stresses and challenges of being a parent while you are experiencing either treated or untreated Bipolar Disorder?
*What is the role of your diagnosis in the workplace? To disclose or not to disclose; that is the question.
Please feel free to post your reaction to any or all of these questions here. If it helps, look through this Forum category (Bipolar Support) to see what other people have written about these topics in the past. But nothing is as good as hearing your own ideas, in your own voice.
Lets jump start this conversation!
@ladylazarus1971
For myself, I often fear disclosing my diagnosis. PEople tend to often fear bipolar.
@calmZebra60 It feels awful to be someone that others might fear. It's so unwarranted, and so disheartening to be treated that way. It feels dangerous to just let anyone know my lifelong struggles, and often daily challenges. If someone doesn't earn my trust, I'm not going to share my diagnosis with them. It's too easy to get hurt that way.
But it also feels good to have someone to confide in, and can see when you are struggling and can understand why.
It's a thin line to balnace on, right?
By nature I am, and always have been, bold. I have at times taken this boldness to the workplace where I advocate for better understanding of what it means to create a workplace that has employee wellbeing atop the list of priorities. As most of my work in the last 10 years has been in the helping or community sector, this is perhaps more accepted and understood.
It does come with risks. Stigma and bias from lack of understanding will always be an issue if the condition is a mystery and not discussed openly. I have friends who went through this in the 1980's from LGBTIQ+ community. Bi Polar, and other identities of difference, does need champions who will pave the way for the children of today to be better understood when they discover their own challenges of identity and seek to be met with compassion rather than judgement.
Feel a bit Martin Luther King Jr - but this is my dream.
@calmSun91 It's a wonderful dream to have! We need to make it a reality,
