Bipolar By Carolina Fisher Analysis

Throughout the memoir, Fisher’s mindset about how she views herself altered negatively because of her bipolar disorder. Her negative views about herself came from the criticism of others. She was unable to let the stigma around her bipolar disorder not affect her instead, she let it alter how she views herself. Fisher fits easily into the group of bipolar disorder patients for the reason that “more than half of patients with bipolar disorder were embarrassed or ashamed at the time of diagnosis” (Lewis 36). Most patients feel as though they do not belong in this world, feeling this way because of the people around them. They become ashamed to be who they are because of others and this causes them to shut down. Which causes a major impact on

Fisher’s bipolar disorder, created several new challenges for her and the people close to her, because of the stigma surrounding bipolar disorder. As Lewis puts it, “the stigma surrounding all mental illnesses creates daunting challenges for people with bipolar disorder and their loved ones” (36) and Fisher showed this. Several of Fisher’s family members only treated her poorly because of the stigma surrounding her bipolar disorder causes society to believe that poor treatment of mental health patients is fine. This treatment from people close to her caused her to have a negative outlook on the world because she felt that society was to blame for why they were treating her poorly. By Fisher blaming the world for these negative experiences, she was better able to cope with these feelings from the stigma surrounding her bipolar disorder. Another reason why people close to Fisher were treating her differently was because of this idea that “if one family member is identified as having a mental disorder, then the [whole] family is ‘marked’” (Meisel 117) and will be looked down upon. Fisher’s family tried to avoid this by ignoring the fact that she had bipolar disorder, trying to hide it from the world. This made Fisher feel ashamed to be who she is and made her feel as though both her family and the world were against her. Leading

The criticism from society caused Fisher to have “a crippling feeling of defeat and hopelessness” (Fisher 11) that she was unable to get rid of because society would not let her. Due to the fact of how society was treating her, such as the fact that society was not welcoming to her disorder. An example of this would be when Fisher brought up her bipolar disorder at a community gathering and they ignored the comment pretending not to hear it, which Fisher viewed as a rejection from the world. So now her perceptive about social gatherings is to not talk because nobody wants to listen. Although Fisher should not have to experience this feeling of world rejection she does and that is one reason why her perspective on the world is negative. Research also agrees with what Fisher has to say about society's attitude, as presented by Lee and others, “[society] has a stigmatizing attitude to the person with a mental disorder [bipolar disorder]” (388). With this additional research and Fisher’s memoir, it shows that society mistreats bipolar disorder patients by never giving them a chance and marking them as flawed when they are diagnosed. Due to the way the world marked her as someone who is flawed and hopeless, her perspective about the world altered negatively. On the other hand, though Fisher is still able to keep a little bit