An introduction~

Hi there

I hope that I don't insult any one here, that is not my intention! Apologies in advance if this is any way out of line.

I do not have bipolar disorder. However, I am writing a short play for a school assessment and the focus is on bipolar disorder. I'd like to make this play as sensitive and as correct as I can, therefore I hope you don't mind me asking a few questions here and reading around on this forum.

Thank you all very much,
Edophe (:

Interesting- what class is this for? College or high school?

is it supposed to be true reflection of the everyday life of a bipolar person? Or should it highlight the difficulties and benefits of bipolar? Or maybe the thoughts that go through the minds of a bipolar person - a view from our perspective?

It's for Drama I'm in my final year of high school.

We are basically looking at the universal theme of accepting yourself as a teenager. Our protagonist has recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and we focus on her trying to learn about herself and her disorder, and the complications she struggles through. Obviously, as niether my classmate nor I have bipolar, we are not expecting to give a fully accurate representation of the everyday life of a bipolar person. We just want to show the audience a small insight into this particular disorder and educate them on the difficulties and benefits of bipolar.

your best bet would be to address the manic and the depressive episodes. read a bit about the signs and symptoms of each then apply them to your storyline. what is the perspective of the story? is it first person or is it outside looking in? whatever you do be realistic in the presentation. if you know someone who is BP and is willing to share, ask questions. it will be very difficult to get an accurate portrayal w/out that kind of insight. cover everything from the meds, to the suicidal thoughts, to manic episodes that last for 3-4 days w/out sleep. just my 2 pennies................and now i am officially poor.

Also, look up symptoms teen specific. Some of them vary, such as more irritability rather than straight up mania a lot of times for teens. I was one of those. Never did outgrow it! AS a teen I could turn a simple comment into a full blown screaming match. As an adult I still can do that. Also determine if you want to do BP I or II as the symptoms vary slightly. Most people think about BPI when they think BP. I know I did and thats why I swore I wasnt BP. I had no idea BP II existed until I did research and found that I very much fit that. The main difference is I has mania, with hallucinations and delusions, while II does not. That's not to say that when you are BP II you think logically at all times. I did not. I could get very grandoise, but it never went into the impossible category(like I could fly) but rather into the irrational category (that I could walk into National Geographic and convince them that they needed to hire me- nevermind that sooo many people with a ton of experience get turned down there every day).

Also, hallucinations can be more subtle than you see someone in your house that isnt there or voices telling you to kill yourself. It could be music playing or shadow figures or so forth.

IMHO, Id set it up like hger talking to a psych or therapist and having flashbacks as the person tells her about the symptoms. But I am sure you already have it set up in a set format.

Also, I would put a major focus on how bipolar people can and do easily blend into society. AS time has gone on, I have found more and more people who were bipolar who I would never imagine were anything but energetic and social or slightly different from the norm. With all the bipolar people I have known in real life, only one had a problem with getting by in society. And I have known of 6 for sure, including myself.

Most people think they know most of the symptoms, starting with suicide. I think that for a drama class, it would be much more interesting showing it from the inside. The rest of the world doesnt see the things we see, or hear the things we hear. Very few people I have met understand how we feel inside, but most people know someone who is bipolar, so they know how they act.

To portray the life of a BP person in a few minutes is difficult - I can be quite normal for days. You could also adopt the position of showing that BP people can be perfectly normal and shouldnt be discriminated against.

How about a depressed Isaac Newton, sitting under an apple tree, when an apple falls on his head. Suddenly, he realises that something must be attracting his head to that apple, and his depression turns into mania. He becomes dillusional, and blames it on a warp in the time-space continuim!

Hmm, very true. It is hard to understand why we act the way we do in certain phases, although you can see the symptoms. The only problem with that is that it is sometimes hard to put into words as well. Like when I go shopping, know I dont need something, but feel such an impulse to buy it anyways. I have no idea how to explain it to someone that doesnt have bipolar. Why I have to buy something, have to have something, manage to justify it to myself. Maybe a devil and angel sort of motif. haha

Me-"I want this" Angel-"You dont need that" devil-"It looks great on you, of course you need it!" A"You already have 5 shirts like that" d- "You dont have this color and its on sale. Whats the big deal" A- "You are tryign to save money for a trip" D- "It would look great on your trip. Seriously, you need this." A-"You are going to regret buying this later" d- "You never regret buying something that looks cute on. Even if you do, itll be a split second and you will forget about it" A- "Just sayin...." Me- "Well, if I put back one of the things of makeup that I also dont need that is in my cart then maybe its okay." Into the cart it goes!

And I believe I am mild. But I used to be a major tightwad that needed to be talked into buying something, not out of it! And it is soooo painful taking anything out of my cart or putting it back on the shelf. But that does sort of resemble the conversation I have in my head when I go shopping. It doesnt however protray the physical rush that goes along with it.

I dont have to go shopping - i just find a nice gadget on the internet, and I need it. NOW! Who cares what it costs.

For a play, I would suggest having a background voice explaining what the bipolar person is thinking. "I like that - I must need it!" or "what was that noise - why did no-one else hear it - why is everyone looking at me funny?" or "why does everyone hate me. no-one appreciates everything I do for them - they just use me on my good days", "Why do I care about this life anyway"

At the same time, the bipolar person would act like I would act with those thought going through my mind. Either depressed, wondering around aimlessly and sleeping, or running around doing 101 things at the same time, buying everything in sight, starting a new business, etc.

Its so funny how differently this manifests for everyone, because I dont usually wander around aimlessly nor do 101 things at once. I do like one or two things at once, just get distracted in the middle and move on to whatever distracted me. Of course, something will likely distract me from that as well. But I do get some similar thoughts, mainly the everyone hates me one. But for me its more surfing the internet, seeing pics my friends posted where they went out and I wasnt invited, deciding they dont really want to be my friend, that they are just nice to me because they dont want to be rude. There is a little less of that now, but now its more "no matter how hard I try I will never totally fit in. They will always be closer to each other than me. I will always be just on the outside." Or at school, thinking that because of somethign I did, I had managed to make it so that most of the body of English majors must hate me. Even though they didnt know about it for the most part, they were going to find out and I would be outcasted and the looks a few gave me were proof, obviously.(I really do think in a few cases they were purposely ignoring me...) And if I could only count the amount of times I have sworn people were giving me funny looks.

In either case, I am either getting myself worked up into a majorly PO'd mood, ranting and raving, or in the case of the college one, maybe walking to class smirking at my own superiority or the fact that I may be pissing one girl off who I have no problems with but it just makes me better anyways. Its amazing how you can be grandoise and think you are better than everyone else and yet insecure all at once...

I am not a gadget person. I like clothes and makeup. Earrings as well. All things I need to see in person or try on. Which I suppose helps because if i dont go anywhere, then I dont buy anything. Books, though. I am always tempted to buy those online even though I have a ton yet to be read...