Are You Bipolar, Too?

Some psychiatrists treat their patients as if they are working hand in glove with pharmaceutical market or they are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies; these psychiatrists claim that they act for being ‘scientific’. You may have witnessed it or you have been told by others, I suppose. They prescribe after looking at their patients’ face for just 10 minutes. No listening to the story of the patient, no acknowledging the facts. It seems like being mentally ill becomes fashionable and some people benefit from it. For example; there weren’t any kids who weren’t diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the past. Now, there are no people who aren’t diagnosed with manic depression or let’s say it more charismatic: “bipolar disorder”. When I tell people that I am a psychological counselor, most of them insist that they are diagnosed with “bipolar disorder” and I try to understand why they show off because they are bipolar.  

I know some of them have this illness literally but others make me think they just do image making; especially some artists. The number of artists who think they are creative, think they are right to behave thoughtlessly or threaten his/her and other people’s lives because they are bipolar is considerable.  Admirers of these artists -writers, musician or painter- imitate being “bipolar”; something to pay regard to.  

It is too worrying that people need to be affected this much and competing for going to the psychiatrists to be diagnosed because when a person is diagnosed with illness, they feel confined with and maybe feel safe. They lay the burden on the diagnosis and hope for help from drugs. No doubt that the psychiatrist who looks at his/her patient for just ten minutes and prescribes cool medicines without suggesting any psychotherapy help thinks he/she is doing a favor.

After being diagnosed, a person doesn’t try to solve his/her problems or to think long and hard over these problems since s/he leans on drugs. S/he may prefer covering them and narcotizing herself/himself than getting to the bottom of the problem.

There are antipsychiatry specialists on the other side. These specialists don’t work with the diagnosis. They try to communicate with their patients without categories, diagnosis criteria and labelling. We call it therapeutics. The specialist invites the diagnosed patient to look beyond the seen since being stuck in the diagnosis prevents transformation and recovering and creating placebo effect instead. A patient can be healed only when the specialist aims to realize the patient, have a therapeutic relationship with and study him/her carefully.

Giving importance to the diagnosis and to be labelled can mean a resistance to the altering. Alteration can make you feel anxious and weird most of the time. Alteration means novelty and extraordinary things. Without borders and without obvious forms. The patient denies touching inside, becomes a stranger to himself/herself while clutching the diagnosis because the “diagnosis” is a stable thing and its boundaries are definite but the change is without boundaries and dynamic.

It is a pity for the ones who chase after an image and the latest style and fall apart from themselves lving in a plastic bag, in a synthetic life… (TI/HK/BD)

 Click here to read the article in Turkish