Lifting the Lid on Mania
Lifting the Lid on Mania Most portrayals of bipolar I consumed in media throughout my teens taught me that it is a dangerous illness, characterised by violence, unpredictability, emotional outburst and other, often negative, qualities. I thought of films like Manic [1] , where Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, Lyle Jenson, acts so brutally to another teen that he ends up institutionalised. Whilst institutionalised, he meets various people, including Chad, who has bipolar. With it being ‘Time to Talk Day’ only a few days ago, I felt compelled to write about my experiences of having bipolar, and the associated stigma that continues to surround this disorder. Depression gets talked about a lot – something that is by no means a bad thing – but I still see so little discourse about mania, even in my own writing. So, in honour of Time to Talk Day, I’d like to lift the lift on mania Understanding my Bipolar As such, when diagnosed in 2018 as a teen myself, only negative thought