This is such an amazing topic. The question that you raised is something that I think of almost everyday. Is this my personality or my bipolar? Being diagnosed as bipolar for almost 15 years now you would think I would have some more enlightenment about this. I have asked this question to my doctor and my therapists. There is no easy answer and I don't think I will ever have an answer. Bipolar is part of me and not all of me. My diagnosis describes a part of who I am. At times I am so ashamed of my diagnosis and other times I am so grateful. I feel this diagnosis has made me a better person and more empathetic to others. I appreciate you bringing this topic up because I don't feel so alone in my thinking.
This is such an amazing topic. The question that you raised is something that I think of almost everyday. Is this my personality or my bipolar? Being diagnosed as bipolar for almost 15 years now you would think I would have some more enlightenment about this. I have asked this question to my doctor and my therapists. There is no easy answer and I don't think I will ever have an answer. Bipolar is part of me and not all of me. My diagnosis describes a part of who I am. At times I am so ashamed of my diagnosis and other times I am so grateful. I feel this diagnosis has made me a better person and more empathetic to others. I appreciate you bringing this topic up because I don't feel so alone in my thinking.
This is such an amazing topic. The question that you raised is something that I think of almost everyday. Is this my personality or my bipolar? Being diagnosed as bipolar for almost 15 years now you would think I would have some more enlightenment about this. I have asked this question to my doctor and my therapists. There is no easy answer and I don't think I will ever have an answer. Bipolar is part of me and not all of me. My diagnosis describes a part of who I am. At times I am so ashamed of my diagnosis and other times I am so grateful. I feel this diagnosis has made me a better person and more empathetic to others. I appreciate you bringing this topic up because I don't feel so alone in my thinking.
Wow, John. Thanks for breaking out some of what's coming up in DSM-V. I can't wait to get diagnosed with a personality disorder because I'm introverted.
If I weren't introverted, I couldn't spend so much time sitting by myself. Which means I wouldn't have a ghost of a chance of getting any serious writing done. Any of us could name authors whose very writing promises us that they are introverts: Annie Dillard, Mark Salzman, and Alasdair MacIntyre being the three that pop immediately to mind. I have no doubt that most of today's book-a-year publishing brands are extraverts -- they are required to do too much marketing to be anything else. But I'm also sure that a great many wonderful books are written by people who take time to think about their subjects.
I just hope no one decides to cure all of us who are introverted enough to think.
Introversion isn't the same thing as social anxiety, which we've also been discussing here. Introverts tend to have smaller numbers of closer friends, and to enjoy getting together in twos and threes instead of crowds. And we do also get a lot of energy from things we do by ourselves, which is how we can tend to isolate -- quite distinct from the self-isolation that is part of depression. By contrast, extraverts get a lot of energy from being in crowds, which drains us. So I do agree: we need to "get out and do relationships"; and some of us need to learn to do relationships; but labeling "introversion" a personality disorder isn't going to help.
So what's concerning me about what you're posting about the DSM-V is that is suggests the p-docs of the world have decided we need to be a nation of Rotarians ... and if we try to make introverts into extraverts, then we WILL exhaust and depress all the introverts, which WILL require medication ... and probably eventually also require long stays in the psych hospitals that are ceasing to exist.
It's starting to sound to me like DSM-V is designed to medicalize/diagnose even more conditions that DSM-IV did ... that we were finally beginning to recognize the difference between clinical depression (treat it) and grief (give it a couple years) but now we're starting to label perfectly ordinary personality traits as if they need treatment because they're "outside the cultural norm." What's next? "Excessive athleticism" (let's put the young Michael Jordan on something so he won't be at the edge of the bell curve ...) "Hyperservile syndrome" ("Sister Teresa, I understand you think God wants you to care for lepers in Calcutta, but you need to pay more attention to your own needs. Why don't you borrow a nice novel from the convent library?")
Aargh. I'm going to have to read more about this myself. Until then: Merry Christmas to all! And to all, a good night!
Hey, LadyBehind theMask. I hear you. When I'm out in public, no one would call me an introvert. I can be very animated. But it really seriously drains me. I usually have to chill wherever I am and certainly when I get home. I may take days to fully recover. Right now, I'm redesigning my website, home alone. Doing creative stuff on my own is what energizes me. Introversion would be a personality order. It is one of the components in getting a read on personality, but I fully agree with you - I regard my introversion as good. But if I stay home too much I do get depressed. I also used to have social anxiety, which - as you note - is different than introversion. It took me a long time to figure this out. I got over the social anxiety, but I would still be wiped out going out. I think it's OK for a clinician to point out introversion, so long as it is recognized as a legitimate part of one's personality, together with the black box warning to watch out for isolating. :)
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I recently worked with a woman for whom I assessed (I assessed which means absolutely nothing cause I am nothing able to officially or professionally diagnose or assess... I just a MI person.) as a "psychopathic/narcissitic diva bitch". cause Man Oh Man did she exhibit the traits bullet by bullet of each disorder as you read the bullets. I totally did not know that they've combined the 2 into one.
She has a daughter for whom she once told me was diagnosed with "a mood disorder" but in dealing with this woman everyday... at work... and having some personal communications with this woman in the workplace setting... I labeled her as a psychopathic narcissitic bitch. It never once occurred to me to label her as Bipolar for she didn't "act" or speak as Bipolar.
Maybe that's because I have Bipolar and I've researched it, read it, gone through extensive therapy for it, and have gotten to know all I could know of it inside and out. Many other lay people, like myself, without all the reading - therapy - and research... would have labeled her "Bipolar".
Everything is Bipolar these days when if you actually sat them down, in a psychiatric setting, would likely come out with another totally different diagnosis OR perhaps the Bipolar (cause it's so darn popular) WITH one of those 5 personality disorders as a secondary running amuck with the Bipolar.
You know... we all have personalities and we all have personality quirks. If we could just subtract the Bipolar either the pro diagnoses or the family member labels... and deal with the behavior in and of itself... it would be much easier to decide how to best respond to the person.
Sure, there are folks with Bipolar who also have one of these distinct personality disorders. Yet, there are many folks with Bipolar that if you extract the Bipolar Disorder... are just as normal, dull, and uneventful as the next person cause though they have a personality quirk, they do not have a Personality Disorder.
If those that just arbitrarily label a family member Bipolar because they are exhibiting extreme aggression, agitation, pushes people away while trying to desparately cling to them, blow up over everything so out of reality to the situation, abuse, cut and burn themselves, forget everything ever said, etc... could just realize that you know... it may truly not be just Bipolar OR Bipolar itself... it could be something so totally separate and different... and stop generalizing all Bipolars as like this one they are dealing with... more understanding might actually pour forth.
Hey, Tabby. Good to carry on this conversation from our other posts and comments. As you know, a lot of loved ones come to this site, asking something along the lines of: "My husband-wife-girlfriend-boyfriend abuses me, humiliates me, rages at me, doesn't keep his/her promises, says it's all my fault - is this bipolar?" At least they've taken the trouble to ask the question, but you see what we're dealing with. If a friend or loved one or someone at work is behaving badly, people just assume it has to be bipolar. A personality disorder never enters into it.
And we as patients also get sucked in. We, too, are hoping one word is the answer to all our problems. But personality is way too complex for easy answers. You've done the research, I've done the research. After that, it becomes ruthless self-inquiry. You and I are still inquiring. Very happy to have someone to do my inquiring with. :)