Stigma

I don’t suffer from a mental illness,

In fact, I don’t suffer at all.

Let’s talk about my diagnoses;

“Bipolar Disorder” is a big word to grasp,

Hard to understand when talking about illnesses,

But easy to use when you want to describe

The rapid ways you change your vibe.

Except Bipolar Disorder isn’t just that,

We don’t go from happy to sad at the drop of a hat,

We can spend weeks feeling manic,

Or days in depression,

It isn’t rapid mood progression,

It’s extreme, slow motion, emotions.

I do not suffer from my disorder,

But I suffered years before I would discover,

That MDD was actually unlikely,

And how wrong a doctor could be.

No one listened to me,

When I said there was more,

They just handed me a prescription,

And pushed me out the door.

When I was diagnosed Hypoglycemic,

It took eight hours of a test,

And two weeks for results,

For something that barely impacted my life,

But when my head was assessed,

The results took five minutes from a stranger,

Who claims to have done their best.

Being correctly diagnosed actually helped,

Believe it or not.

I learned how to manage my head,

I learned how to spot

Those feelings of euphoria and dread,

I learned how to continue life,

Even with being dealt a handicapped card,

Knowing didn’t make things hard,

Knowing didn’t make me crazier,

If anything, life got easier.

No, I don’t believe anyone suffers from a mental illness,

But there are mentally ill people who are suffering,

Due to the system failing to make progress,

Progress that’s still buffering,

Yet more and more people who are diagnosed mentally ill,

Are being misdiagnosed and mistreated,

Feeling overwhelmed and defeated,

They need our kindness and charisma,

They need help to stop the stigma.