[Redway]

Originally Posted by Twosugars

I don't know what people think bipolar is, but it is not insanity. Stephen Fry is bipolar, for example.
Afaik, it is depression interspersed with periods of mania, i.e hyperactivity, grand plans etc. (like a opposite of depression),so mood swings both ways.
Of course, bipolar people can suffer from other, co-morbid mental conditions which may or may not include psychosis which is what we commonly think of as insanity, i.e. lack of touch with reality (delusions, voices etc), for example schizophrenia etc
But just bipolar doesn't make you cruel or crazy. Unbalanced - yes: sometimes depressed, sometimes over the top.
Plus bipolar comes in two types, 1 and 2, mild and severe.

A psychosis is just a mental illness in the strict sense of the word. I know the DSM likes to limit it more and more to hallucinations and delusions these days (which are even common in bipolar) but it’s been recognised as a type of insanity for centuries. It’s just that medication’s tampered the natural course of bipolar and there’s more emphasis on mild bipolar these days.

The lucid intervals have always been recognised. I don’t think anyone sees it as a chronic form of insanity but acute mania’s used as the stereotype of a mad person. That’s what bipolar’s like in its severe form.

And it should be said that having schizophrenia and bipolar at the same time is close to impssobile. The psychiatrists who love that hybrid schizoaffective label are usually the ones who are only familiar with the watered down version of bipolar and not manic depression in its serious form.