trad
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Posts: 4
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« on: September 17, 2008, 07:25:14 PM » |
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Hi all, I'm new to the forum thing like many of you. I'm from rural AL and was diagnosed with BP two years ago when I went to Boston for school. I think my diagnoses would have come much earlier had I been better educated about mental illnesses. I wonder if any of you other Southerners or Small Towners can relate to the difficulties of accepting and treating BP in rural areas. Besides the lack of education and facilities, I grew up with such an ignorance about mental illnesses that after being diagnosed I couldn't talk to anyone about it for fear of being stigmatized. Also, i think the last thing someone with BP needs is to feel even further isolated from others due to stigmatization (or even percieved stigmatization). I guess I'm afraid that if others knew about my BP then they wouldn't take me seriously anymore. How are you others coping in small towns or coming from small towns?
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Frog
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« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2008, 08:59:46 PM » |
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Welcome to the site from a small town in Alabama also.
Roll Tide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The husband of a "High Maintenence" woman.....
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francie reregistered
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« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2008, 09:55:29 PM » |
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wow, that's so cool - two of you from Alabama. great!
Trad, the best thing i can tell you is, you don't have to advertise your illness... it's personal anyway. I'm not a southerner, tho.
Perhaps you could consult your medical doctor and ask about treatments in your area (if you're back to living in AL?). Maybe they could help?
all best wishes, francie
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high maintenence
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« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2008, 03:25:52 AM » |
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Trad, I am Frog's wife. He doesn't have Bp, I do. We live in Alabama in a small town between B-ham and Huntsville. I have had a terrible problem with stigma. I've lost so much respect and credibility. My church thinks I'm a leper and would stone me if it wasn't illegal lol. I don't go out much bc of the fact that everyone knows now and I feel uncomfortable being around them. If you lead a normal life, you can do like Francie said and not air out your dirty laundry, but in my case, we had to explain in some sort of way, why I wasn't there anymore at school functions for my children, why I am not at church, why I won't talk to anyone on the phone, and why my husband wasn't working. Once people learn of your illness, because of the lack of education here, they most likely will not take you seriously, as you said. You lose your credibility. Hell, I've lost credibility in my own home. If I get upset over something, even if it's for a legitimate reason, everyone if my house thinks that I'm just upset because I'm Bipolar...what shitheads!
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chasemanzmum
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« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2008, 01:55:16 PM » |
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welcome to the site alot of us have been there and done that ourselves
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If you can't run with the big dogs; stay on the porch!
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clayton
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« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2008, 11:01:24 PM » |
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i have never lived in a small town, and I'm a Yankee anyhow, but in big cities we have neighborhoods, which is about the same thing. I dont know how much people in my neighborhood know about me, but I would bet money its more than I think. But the impression I get is that the neighbors think I am OK, so that's good. I liked this area because I am not the most suspicious person on the street. We really need to fight stigma--we need to hook it on to some other cause, like politicians add things to bills they are considering--maybe breast camcer--that's a popular cause. The stigma is worse than the bipolar!
Clayton 93
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law---Love is the law, love under will.
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clayton
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« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2009, 05:02:36 PM » |
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Cpme to Oakland, the City of Night! If the inhabitants dont rob, beat, or kill you, you've made a lot of friends.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law---Love is the law, love under will.
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cy
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Youth is wasted on the young.....
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« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2009, 06:12:50 PM » |
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I, too, live in a small, rural town and feel completely out of place. Everyone is expected to act and behave in a certain way, but I never know from day to day how I will be....Will I be manic? Depressed? Or both?
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Phyllis
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« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2009, 06:17:18 PM » |
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I lived in a small town once... It was so small it was called a Village... no lie! Everyone was in everybody else's business. I hated it so I kept to myself as much as possible.
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nordicnicki
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« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2009, 11:25:39 AM » |
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i live in a small town and at first i was avoided as people found out i was bipolar but now i am kind of accepted apart from a very small minority.they just realised that i really am no different to the person i was before they knew.........although paranoioa can set in sometimes with me.
i choose now not to tell people that i have become new friends with but that is something that is a personal choice of mine purely because of my own stigma a bout myself
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bound and tied in emotion but still we fly.losing all my reason cause theres nothing left to blame.
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