I am a writer. I am a blogger. I am a music aficionado and a tennis player. I am a television producer. But I am NOT bipolar. I happen to have the bipolar condition.
Many of us always say our illness doesn’t define us, yet it’s hard not to catch ourselves saying, “I’m bipolar.” In reality, it’s just an ailment — a side dish, if you will. It’s not the entrée or the main event.
Let’s look at the semantics. Bipolar is an adjective — never a noun — that means “being, characteristic of or affected with a bipolar disorder,” according to Merriam-Webster. So in that sense, “I’m bipolar” is correct grammatically.
People sometimes say “I am diabetic” or “I am epileptic,” but it seems to me that more often than not, people with these conditions say, “I have diabetes” or “I have epilepsy.” We should take a cue from them. No one would ever refer to someone who has cancer as being “cancerous.”
This article was originally published on the International Bipolar Foundation blog. Read more.
