The Fake News, when it comes to mental health.
This is a very simple example of me, demonstrating what is is like living with a mental health condition which I have. I experience bi-polar, depression, anxiety and PTSD.
But in this example I just want to focus on the bi-polar aspect. A lot of people are under the impression that people with bi-polar issues and concerns have extreme mood swings...FAKE NEWS, folks.
Yes some people will experience extremes in their moods, but the majority of persons like myself are not depressed for days and weeks at a time (spending all day in bed.) Nor do most people get the opposite extremely happy for no apparent reason and spend hours a day cleaning the house...FAKE NEWS, people.
But we can be effected, by normal everyday up and downs of life, more than other persons who are not bi-polar diagnosed. We may get depressed when something goes wrong in our lives, or we may get over excited when something great happens in life, easier than person without a mental health concern, or issue. But this excitement only lasts for maybe just the day or two and same with the depression.
Here is my example of getting over excited with an normal everyday life experience (here on LinkedIn,) and I hope it sheds some light on mental health and persons who are bi-polar and how everyday life occurrences can effect us differently.
When I started to get a lot of requests to connect (187 in month at one time,) the instant feeling of gratification and being over excited (bi-polar effect here,) took over.
I went from just 2,200 connections to the maximum of 30,000 in just 11 months, they like me, they really, really like me I thought. This instant gratification was instant literary on an hour, by hour or day by day (I will call if validation of self,) or addiction. The more I posted and my posts were viewed, the more validated I felt about myself.
Now back to earth for me, I am still getting requests to connect although only a few now and then, and yes my posts get viewed, but I only see it for what it is (LinkedIn) being part of the social media world and I am part of it, but it is not all of who I am. Which was happening, because the likes and views, etc fed into my bi-polar aspect of feeling over excited or you can call it happy.
So enclosing I am no different than you when it comes to likes, comments, or my need of social media in my life, I just get a little more excited than you may, at times.
Note: I want you the reader to pay attention to the fact that I did not use the words bi-polar disorder, or mental illness. The reason for this is in my efforts to help reduce stigmas still associated with mental health our choice of vocabulary plays a huge role in this. Using words such as mental illness, in describing one's mental health, is wrong. Persons with a mental health diagnosis are not ill 24/7 and my, yours our mental health is equally as important to the aspects of our over all health.
For example if you do not have a mental health diagnosis and you were not feeling well, or down in the dumps (depressed,) I would not and nor should others over exaggerate the fact your feeling down and say things like your mental illness is effecting you. Because it is not, your just not feeling well and it is effecting your mental health...I hope I made my point.