Bipolar Doesn't Make You A Bitch

There is a partner in the new place I work that’s a bit, hmmm, shall we say, odd?

Not odd by my standards, pretty normal to me, but everyone else finds her odd, or maybe it’s just her ways they find odd.  Personally I haven’t found a problem with her, apart from the constant gossip about her is getting kind of boring.

She has a particular way of doing things. I can put up with this because everyone has their ways of doing things and, in a work environment, I can bend to that.  She gets upset if things aren’t done properly.  And when I say “upset” I mean, she comes across as a bit fierce and people assume their heads are being bitten off, but I think she just doesn’t know another way of getting her point across.  She isn’t personally offensive to people, she just tells them what they are doing wrong and how she would like them to right it.  I guess you could call her a bit tactless sometimes, she calls a spade a spade, but I prefer that to people skirting around the issue.

My head hasn’t been bitten off yet. I’m still on probation, therefore, still on my best behaviour and I guess she wouldn’t want to scare the new people off.  People don’t like her much, due to her biting head of tendencies, but I was surprised that people think ”she must be bipolar” because of the way she is.

People think she is a bitch. Just because someone is a bitch, doesn’t mean they are bipolar.  Bipolar doesn’t make you a bitch. Sometimes you can be a bitch and not bipolar.  Sometimes you can be bipolar and a bitch.  It seems people do not understand what bipolar is, how it affects yourself and other people and I find it offensive that they would want to slip lithium into her tea, as well as stating that she should be sectioned.

Gah.

I wish I had the guts to stand up for her, and people with bipolar, and people who have been sectioned, and bitches for that matter, and tell it to them how it can be because I’ve fucking lived all three.  I feel their perceptions are wrong and need challenging.  But even though I’m bipolar, I don’t feel like being a bitch (at least not to their face).

It would probably just all fall on deaf ears. I fear that people will assume I am attention seeking, or whining or I just can’t be bipolar/borderline because I’m too nice. Just because you’re nice, doesn’t mean you can’t be a bitch. Just because you’re nice doesn’t mean you can’t be mental.  Some mental people are not nice.  Some normal people are not nice.  Some mental people are bitches.  Some normal people are mental. Mental people are normal.  Mental normal people are nice. And whatever combination you can come up with. People are people, somethings make some people tick and not others.  But she is not bipolar.  I’m not a psychiatrist, but my experience tells me otherwise (maybe it’s like gay-dar?)

My second day on the soap box.  I’ll step off again for a bit now.

Love Sailor xox