“Bipolar vs. Unipolar”
by Dennis
I've spent a lot of time (make that, too much time) in therapeutic settings and in support groups, in which the main issue seems to be one's diagnosis. People are afraid to say things, because they think it will be "tainted" by their own diagnosis, or because they think that what they say can't be relevant to folks with a different diagnosis.
In mood disorder support groups, the lines are inevitably drawn between those who are bipolar (manic depression) and those who are "unipolar" or have "only" depression. Having been diagnosed with major depression for some time before being (finally) diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I've been on both sides of this issue. And I think that ultimately, there's little to argue about.
The cold hard fact is that, to a large extent, any mood disorder is still a mood disorder, and it still separates us from the vast population of "normals." Bipolars and unipolars have much more in common with each other, than with the "normals."
OK, yes, I realize that unipolars don't experience mania or hypomania and have nothing to share with bipolars, in that regard. I realize that the medications that both types take are sometimes very different, again appearing to rob us of any middle ground.
But you see, that's all it is — appearance.
The breakdown by diagnosis is, I think, a false dichotomy. Bipolars and unipolars alike live in a world which is hostile to them, does not understand them, and largely doesn't want to understand them. We have job troubles, family troubles, marriage troubles. We have all sorts of problems. "Normals" have them, too, but they cope with them much better than we do. We need things like support groups to help us cope with them.
There's no need to feel uncomfortable, if you look around and see that all the people there have a different diagnosis. Deep down they are really much the same, though, so try not to look a them as "bipolars" or "unipolars," but as people — people who, just like yourself, need a little help, now and then.