In my argument of fact I hope to clear the misconceptions of Bipolar Disorder. We live in a society today that generally seems to perceive Bipolar Disorder as "craziness". I feel like when someone mentions Bipolar Disorder, or any emotional disorder for that matter, people automatically assume that the person in question is in control of how they act and feel but choose to display symptoms out of laziness. The idea that people should "just stop being sad" when they are experiencing depression is a common thought for the general public. In my experience living with Bipolar Disorder I've found that people don't necessarily think this way out of spite, but are instead misinformed about the severity of the condition. I hope to clear away as much stigma as I can to help better inform the public about the basic ins and outs of Bipolar Disorder and that we are capable of living a life without falling into the label of "psycho".
I'm not sure that I'm providing any "new" information per se, but information that isn't known to the general public. The only people that seem to be educated on mental or emotional disorders, like Bipolar Disorder, are the ones that have either been diagnosed or the ones caring for them. It's a stretch to assume that every person should know everything about every disorder, but it's not impossible to think that everyone could obtain at least enough knowledge to respect and understand that disorders of the brain are real issues and not to be thrown out as "they just aren't trying hard enough".
The issues surrounding Bipolar Disorder seem to be unknown in the sense that people don't know they are doing anything when they make assumptions or judge someone based on a diagnosis alone. It's also fairly apparent, at least to me, that throwing the word "bipolar" around has in a sense almost become like using the word "retarded" out of context. People don't think they are in the wrong because it doesn't feel wrong. Our society is so misinformed that most people go uncorrected when they use the word "bipolar" in a negative or derogatory sense.
My hypothesis is that, with the right amount of straightforward information, I can educate my audience in the realities of Bipolar Disorder. I hope to remove stigma while simultaneously giving them a glimpse into the life of someone with Bipolar Disorder. I will use facts such as percentages of how many people are actually dealing with Bipolar Disorder and how many go untreated because they are afraid of the stigma surrounding it. The fact that one in 22 people will be diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder tends to surprise most people, and I hope to change that. I will also address the issue of how imperative it is that we remove this stigma by revealing the facts of how many people with this disorder fail to ever live a "normal" productive life. By showing the numbers and results of experiments done specifically to observe stigma and life after and before diagnosis, I hope to make the situation more real and tangible to the audience. Lastly, after I bring the hidden but easily teachable realities of Bipolar Disorder into the light, I hope to educate my audience on the treatment of the disorder and how they may be able to help.
The facts I still need are less apparent to me currently, because I've had no difficulty finding the facts I have in the present. I'm at a point where I have all the facts that I've sought to find so I'm not looking for anything specific. I understand that there are a significant amount of facts that I still lack that may be appropriate for my argument but I'm not quite sure what they are or how they'll be presented. One fact I may seek out is rise the or fall of how many people have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder over the last ten to fifteen years. Is it more common now, and if so, why?
Friday, February 21, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Number Four. Summaries for days.
In my research and journey in finding sources to use in my annotated bibliography, and eventually my research paper, I've found three different articles in scientific journals that greatly help in the quest of learning more about my topic.
The first article is titled "Perceptions of Supportive Behavior By Young Adults With Bipolar Disorder". In the article the authors mention that one in every 22 people are effected by Bipolar Disorder and of those 22 people, roughly one fifth of them will commit suicide. I learned more statistic facts like the suicide rate of people with Bipolar Disorder is 28 times higher than the rest of the population. But more importantly, I learned that there are huge changes in quality of life when those who have been diagnosed perceive themselves to have a solid support system. The authors intentions were to examine support methods and track what the sufferers found to be beneficial. I was surprised to learn that a huge part of coping is simply how one perceives themselves and their relative support groups.
In the second article titled, "Effects, Experiences, And Impact of Stigma on Patients with Bipolar Disorder", the authors give surveys to those effected with Bipolar Disorder in an attempt to find out what they thought about how social stigma effects their lives and how they assume society perceives them. I learned that over 50% of those with Bipolar Disorder think that society looks upon them in a negative light. The authors found that sufferers assumed the stigma to be so apparent that it affected their self esteem and figured it made it harder for them to live in a normal world. The only thing I wish I had in regards to this article is a higher amount of people in the test. But in retrospect, I was happy to see that tests were done in two separate countries, Argentina and Canada, and then compared to one another. This shows that Bipolar Disorder has stigma that reaches beyond the shores of our own country.
The third article came from the Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and is titled "Family Care Giving in Bipolar Disorder: Experiences of Stigma". In this article, the authors delved into the lives of those who care for people with Bipolar Disorder. I was surprised to find that most care givers, which mainly consisted of family members, were effected by stigma just as much, if not more, than the people they were caring for. Many care givers spoke about the fear they had in speaking about Bipolar Disorder and assumed people would think they were crazy or unfit for society. It was interesting to learn about how families are effected by their loved one's disorder and how it can actually have a negative effect on their lives as well.
I believe there are a few holes in my research up to this point in the areas specific to how these negative stigmas are effecting diagnosis and whether or not people are willing to seek a diagnosis, and therefore a treatment to their illness. I believe the stigma is apparent enough to effect peoples decisions and thoughts of Bipolar Disorder but I've yet to find an article about the exact correlation. I expect to find more information in articles of scientific journals provided by our library. I just have to narrow my search terms and dig deeper into the database.
The first article is titled "Perceptions of Supportive Behavior By Young Adults With Bipolar Disorder". In the article the authors mention that one in every 22 people are effected by Bipolar Disorder and of those 22 people, roughly one fifth of them will commit suicide. I learned more statistic facts like the suicide rate of people with Bipolar Disorder is 28 times higher than the rest of the population. But more importantly, I learned that there are huge changes in quality of life when those who have been diagnosed perceive themselves to have a solid support system. The authors intentions were to examine support methods and track what the sufferers found to be beneficial. I was surprised to learn that a huge part of coping is simply how one perceives themselves and their relative support groups.
In the second article titled, "Effects, Experiences, And Impact of Stigma on Patients with Bipolar Disorder", the authors give surveys to those effected with Bipolar Disorder in an attempt to find out what they thought about how social stigma effects their lives and how they assume society perceives them. I learned that over 50% of those with Bipolar Disorder think that society looks upon them in a negative light. The authors found that sufferers assumed the stigma to be so apparent that it affected their self esteem and figured it made it harder for them to live in a normal world. The only thing I wish I had in regards to this article is a higher amount of people in the test. But in retrospect, I was happy to see that tests were done in two separate countries, Argentina and Canada, and then compared to one another. This shows that Bipolar Disorder has stigma that reaches beyond the shores of our own country.
The third article came from the Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and is titled "Family Care Giving in Bipolar Disorder: Experiences of Stigma". In this article, the authors delved into the lives of those who care for people with Bipolar Disorder. I was surprised to find that most care givers, which mainly consisted of family members, were effected by stigma just as much, if not more, than the people they were caring for. Many care givers spoke about the fear they had in speaking about Bipolar Disorder and assumed people would think they were crazy or unfit for society. It was interesting to learn about how families are effected by their loved one's disorder and how it can actually have a negative effect on their lives as well.
I believe there are a few holes in my research up to this point in the areas specific to how these negative stigmas are effecting diagnosis and whether or not people are willing to seek a diagnosis, and therefore a treatment to their illness. I believe the stigma is apparent enough to effect peoples decisions and thoughts of Bipolar Disorder but I've yet to find an article about the exact correlation. I expect to find more information in articles of scientific journals provided by our library. I just have to narrow my search terms and dig deeper into the database.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Blog #3
I've looked into some sources regarding my topic of Bipolar Disorder in reference to what society's perception of it is and how it effects diagnosis. In my search for sources some of the key words I used were "Bipolar Disorder", of course, but I also narrowed the search down by including the words "perception" and "diagnosis". Using these modifiers helped to narrow the search quite a bit and made the number of sources a little less daunting. But still there are several thousand articles regarding Bipolar Disorder. I'm not necessarily overwhelmed by the amount of sources, in fact, I'm sort of glad there are so many different places to learn about the disorder because I feel like I'll probably have an easy time finding different studies with a wide variety of opinions and information.
Most of the approaches I've found in regards to Bipolar Disorder are those addressing the facts of the situation. By facts I mean statistic type studies like for example the number of Bipolar people in America. But I also found quite a few sources that focus on the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder and how it's being treated.
I sorted through the sources without much discipline or guideline. I avoided articles with titles similar to the ones I had previously opened and kept an open mind throughout, doing my best to pay attention to anything I had yet to read. Everything can be useful, it's just matter of finding out how to use it.
I did not actually learn much new information in regards to my topic, but that's only because I myself am Bipolar so I already know quite a bit about it.
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