Are you kidding me? Going through the normal highs and lows triggered by everyday life is a far cry from losing control of your concept of reality or becoming psychotic because your brain chemistry and electrical balance are not in check.
And while the creation of the cocktail itself could have been just a business decision that was made in poor taste, the fact that the media picked it up and has been growing it as a "story" is turning it into something that is further stigmatizing not only the condition, but the man himself. When I went to confirm the name of the cocktail, I typed “Mel Gibson bipolar” in my Google search window and third on the list of automatic suggestions was “Mel Gibson bipolar cocktail.” What I found was the People Magazine story about it, which has been posted on their web site since July 21.
The fallout of this attention can’t be good for anyone. First, it only created further negative stigmas about bipolar disorder, when most people don’t really understand what it’s about in the first place. For example, I had two students who had bipolar disoreder in one of the college classes I teach. They did not disclose their condition to their classmates or anyone else, nor should they have had to.
When another student casually used the term “bipolar” in a discussion when referring to some kind of abnormal behavior exhibited by a character in a story we were discussing, both students were offended by his comment, as was I, since it was far from accurate and was used like it was part of the student’s everyday vocabulary. I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve seen this situation repeated in my classes, which goes to show how desensitized the younger generations are to the term.
Read more:
http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/bipolar-use-the-term-wisely-and/page-2/#ixzz0x9P8zQHM
