Offensive to be Bipolar

MelissaJA

My mental health is

Just a joke.

Its not like you mean

To be offensive

It just happens to be a direct hit

In the gut

When you say shit like

“he was just being so bipolar!”

In response to someone

Being aggressive

Or cheating

Or showing any form of emotion.

Like when you say things like

People who claim

To be depressed

Or suicidal

Are just looking for

Or Are desperate for

Attention, right?

Everything you say

Is fucking offensive.

But I offend you with

My defensive jokes,

The things that get me through

The depression that your bashing

The thing I can not mention

Because how dare I defend myself

When you say things so offensive.

I am just emotional

“she’s being so bipolar right now”.

I can’t get upset

Without it being about

My mental health.

So, I joke,

About dumb things,

Like myself,

Because I am just

Another a dumb thing

To joke about.

You get offended

By something as simple

As a word I used

Or a name I call you

Even though

It was just an extension

to a joke you had made

Or a name you gave yourself.

the word itself might not be offensive in any way,

The context silly,

The joke so dumb

That if you had made it about me

We all would have laughed

Because even my bipolar ass would not find that offensive.

And in the same breath where you tell me

That the joke I said

Hurt your feelings

You bash people

With mental health issues

For being suicidal.

I strike back

And your response.

“oh, she’s upset. She’s just being a bit bipolar right now”.

But my dumb joke was offensive, right?

  • Author: Melissa JA (Pseudonym) (Offline Offline)
  • Published: August 29th, 2020 14:16
  • Category: Unclassified
  • Views: 25
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Comments2

  • Kim Goodell

    I can relate to your apparent anger. I was diagnosed as being severly depressed in 1990. And it pisses me off when people tell me to "just get over it"!!

  • dusk arising

    And fat people don't complain about being called fatty? Bald people about being baldy? One legged people being called peg leg? My learning difficulties daughter being called nutter?

    It's a cruel world. We need to accept how the uneducated society all around us sees us.

    Or do you know a better alternative? Because you cannot change the attitudes and behaviour of the masses just because they hurt you. Proof of that is all around us.

    • MelissaJA

      your right, people can be cruel. people can be hurtful. that does not mean I, or you, or anyone else need to accept this. It takes people speaking out to make those changes. We CAN change people, because people CAN change. When people are made aware and educated they are more likely to change. people are changing every day, and I have seen less people calling others "fatty" or "baldy" than ever before. why is this? because people are speaking out. This poem was not about someone knowing i had bipolar disorder, and calling me bipolar. It was about the stigma, the hurt, the fact that people use bipolar as a negative term towards people for having emotions or anger. mental illness is not defended as much as body positivity, yet. This isn't just complaining, this is spreading awareness.



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