When we wrote Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, we took some heat for the “irreverent humor” that is characteristic of the For Dummies® series. Some people felt that we went too far. They thought our irreverence crossed the border into the land of insensitivity. Two of our editors told us to soften it up. (In a few cases, we followed their advice.) A couple reviewers gave the book positive reviews and then qualified them by saying that our prose was likely to offend sensitive readers.
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cheri
3:22 pm on
July 16th, 2008I love it! Most of my fellow bipolar friends have amazing senses of humour. Humour is much more fun than self pity!
Helen
8:13 pm on
July 16th, 2008LOL I had to laugh at the jokes. I’m Bipolar and find humour is the best way to counter fear and uncertainty at times. My favourite is saying that I run on ‘Lithium Energisers’ which is a take off of energiser batteries. Keep up the good work.
danishgurl
9:45 pm on
July 16th, 2008I share the bipolar burden with a daughter and a son. We often use humor to diffuse a tense situation. For example sometimes when I am really feeling explosive I will remark “You guys are driving me crazy!..Wait,… (I am already crazy) …” My husband and I are in our early 50′s, and he has been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease. We both suffer minor memory loss as a side effect of medication. You can imagine the situations that arise in such a marriage – we could never survive without humor!
When my wife begins to cycle into mania, she usually experiences “pressured speech,” talking very rapidly and constantly. Recently, when her moods were escalating, she was also catching a cold. We were in the kitchen and our 21-year-old son was there with us. Everyone knew that “mom” was cycling, and she was consulting with her doctor to avoid a major mood episode, but we were all kind of avoiding the sensitive topic.
My wife was talking fast and constantly and jumping from one topic to another. She began saying something about her cold or allergies and telling me that she thought whatever was causing her cold symptoms was not anything contagious.
She then asked me, “Do you think it’s contagious?”
I said, “No, honey, from everything I’ve read, bipolar disorder is not contagious.”
She burst out laughing and our son followed. He then said, “That really wasn’t appropriate, but I have to admit, it was funny.”
mary siuda
2:12 am on
August 12th, 2008Well, I have a diagnosis of bipolar, and I am somewhat in denial. Can I talk to someone about the symptoms and other related questions I might have…
Suzanne
4:57 pm on
October 11th, 2008I do think humor is great, but I guess some of us have some “touchy” subjects like ouch–I’ve got the weight gain (causing major problems in my marriage & my already shaky self esteem) & am taking Topamax & do have memory difficulties & at this point I am FAT & STUPID so I guess I wouldn’t find that particular remark funny at all. You can’t be sensitive to everyone, I guess, or you just wouldn’t be able to write anything humorous. But, gulp, that is not funny to me.
Now, I do have my individual therapy appt. & my dialectical behavioral therapy group/class on Thursdays so I tell my husband to take advantage of my being “sane” on Thursdays as by Friday I will revert to my old irrational self again. So I can look at my “crazy” thinking with humor sometimes. My husband sometimes finds me very entertaining the way I “connect the dots.” He’ll call me “Lucy” as in Lucy Ricardo, because I just come up with the most, let’s be polite, “creative” solutions, answers, explanations, etc. He’s just amazed at how my brain works!
He’s just so totally rational (Ph.D in chemistry for God’s sake). It is very difficult for him to understand a disorder that is so intangible, that can’t be measured in a lab, that is internal–my thoughts are impaired…
But he has stuck with me…
And we can laugh at times at what this bipolar has brought about in our life. It helps, because most of it is really completely devastating.
maximink
10:57 pm on
March 26th, 2009Humor will keep you from dying, I swear. I have BP and just went through breast cancer. Whoa, talk about a ride. It was CRAZY, I was INSANE and my husband and his family stood by and supported me all the way through it. My cancer is in remission. I’m still BP….wish they could have chemoed that out too. LOL The jokes are great. I wish we could all go into remission with our BP.
Marthe
9:05 am on
March 28th, 2009Before I was diagnosed with BP I would eventually crash any friendship I managed to cultivate. Even now with treatment people don’t always understand when I withdraw or when I am manic and inappropriate, I use humor to get me through this. A humorous approach keeps my friends from feeling burdened with my condition. If I am going into hiding mode I tell them that my Polars and duking it out right now and I need to stay home. Some ask me if I have tried going without medication. I tell them I am medicated for thier sake as well as mine. Without medication I am either drunk and darn near homicidal or depressed and suicidal. They usually decide that maybe medication isn’t such a bad thing.Humor also keeps me from taking myself so seriously when the self centeredness of paranoia is upon me.Humor has allowed me to remeber that no matter what is happening mood wise…this too shall pass.
Kookie
1:15 am on
March 30th, 2009I too, question the diagnosis of BP. If I was tested or screened I was never made aware of it. I came to therapy for depression that became totally incapacitating after the sudden death of my fiance. First diagnosed w/ PTSD, and certainly major depression, I cannot figure out how this Dr. whom I talk to once every five months for a refill, got the notion that I have BP. I don’t know all the nuances but I do know, with certainty, that I do not, and never have had manic episodes of any type. So how does this work?
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