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Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom  I think your professional diagnosis of a-hole may be extremely accurate, my friend  !
No, in all seriousness....here's what's bothering me about the mental illness slant of this whole situation. Having worked with those who are mentally ill (like Nancy has as well) - I've worked w/ chronically schizophrenic adults (and children), bipolar (aka manic-depressives, using old terms), major depression, personality disorders, dually-diagnosed adults etcetera...
Of all the bipolars I've encountered, during their "manic" stage, they are often in a state of euphoric energy - where they work on projects for days on end, may spend loads of money, may keep going and going without sleep. I have rarely, if ever, witnessed a bipolar person in a state of rage and threats. If there is a concurrent stage of continued rage - there is something else going on in addition to bipolar disorder.
So, what's bothering me is that the media seems yet again to be misrepresenting what being Bipolar Disorder is -- being bipolar has almost nothing to with rage, actually. An outburst, sure, but not really "rage" and threats. Rather, it ranges btwn being euphorically happy and being horribly depressed.
(so...Mel may have more going on than just bipolar, is what I'm saying...) |
What you have seen is generally the most common, but I'm just telling you what I learned, and mania can affect the same person both ways, and each episode of the illness may affect them differently. Most people love the euphoria and get so much done during these periods. Think of his movie Apocalypto, it was a huge undertaking and the manic period would be very useful. At first it's just a little extra energy, but after a while it can be like a tightly wound watch. These periods are often the reason why people don't want to take medication, as it will eliminate these euphoric periods as well. Their brain really is working much better than it normally would, and it's not unusual for highly successful and creative people to have this illness. Many people go for years with only the euphoric type of energy, and some people come down from this and are relatively normal, and don't even enter the depressed state. Although most bipolars experience both euphoria and extreme depression, some are considered unipolar with either depression or euphoria. The agitated part isn't considered part of the depressed stage for some reason, I guess because of the extreme energy, but it's seems like it's closer to the depressed stage then the euphoric stage. The high can be a euphoric high or it can be an agitated high, which leads to rage. Every emotion is highly exaggerated. The rage is considered the most dangerous time, and a person may have many episodes of bipolar psychosis without ever going into the agitated rage stage, but this stage usually does make them get court ordered treatment. Also, it's very possible that alchohol or other drugs influences how the illness would affect someone.