I call it walking the fine line when dealing with other people and emotions in any form of a relationship. It could be boyfriend/girlfriend, parent/child, siblings and of course husband/wife. It really doesn’t matter because the consequences are usually the same.

Emotions are as real as they get and can come out in any form, sometimes its anger and the other extreme, just plain happy about things. Once tagged with an illness( we will use ours of bipolarism) we have to walk that fine line as not to show too much emotions for fear that someone close to us will think we are having either a manic or depressive issue.

I try my best to accommodate the people around me understanding that they have been with me through a lot over the last 30 years relating to my illness and tend to worry and want only what is best for me. In return for all that they have done I stay hyper vigilant, see my psychiatrist and therapist on a regular bases, am open and honest with them and do what I have too do to stay stabilized. So far it’s worked in that I am going on 8 years without a relapse in either direction of mania or depression (knocks on wood).

So why am I posting something called walking the fine line? Because I can’t help but see it in a number of posts lately of people bring up comments and posts related to someone they know that might or might not have the illness showing emotions of anger, hostility and throw in a few financial issues claiming it has to be part of the illness of bipolarism.

My number one pet peeve is when someone discredits or discounts what I have to say or how I feel saying it’s your bipolarism instead of allowing it to be just what it is. We are allowed to get angry and upset at times about things that bother us or be happy about things without someone thinking we should have to run to our psychiatrist and jack up or add on a new medication. Yes…the fine line, of becoming too happy, sad or angry comes into play.

I think it happens all too often that our feelings are discounted because we are the identified patient with a mental illness. For me when this happens, anger takes the place of any emotions I had been feeling because it makes me feel like I am not that important to the other person to just take a minute to listen. From there it just steamroll into something much bigger that it should have been in the first place.

So the next time you see the child punching holes in the wall, someone pushing you away with hostility or what I have learned to do and that is to just stop talking to someone…it just may be an indicator that it’s time to really sit down and listen to that person like you would with anyone else.

I would also put that notepad away with all the little notes of what the person is doing for now and just listen to the person. This person may have good reason to be angry about the situation their in or what’s going on around them and have nothing to do with any illness.