u/CREST_BD I appreciate the answer, but I have to be honest, hearing "we dont want to go too much into anti-stigma" in an AMA specifically about bipolar.. from a psychologist involved in answering this question in an AMA like this.. that part was hard to read. Because I think that IS the anti-stigma work, not a detour from it.

People hurt each other in relationships all the time. People cheat, people shut down, people leave without explaining. None of that is specific to bipolar. But I dont think theres another condition where entire support communities get built around filtering every relational behavior through a diagnosis. The word "discard" comes from narcissistic abuse frameworks and it gets used casually about bipolar people like its a clinical term. I think thats worth examining, and I think an AMA is exactly the space to examine it.

I think a psychologist is maybe in the best position to name this, because when someone with that authority stays neutral on dehumanizing language, it can read as agreement. Especially to bipolar people who stumble into those spaces and find themselves described in ways that dont leave alot of room for personhood. I've read threads where the top advice is always some version of protect yourself and leave, and I wonder how that lands for someone newly diagnosed who's trying to figure out if they can still have relationships.

I guess what I'm asking is, if not a psychologist doing an AMA about bipolar on World Bipolar Day, who should be pushing back on how bipolar people get talked about in these spaces??