I've been reading up on non-bipolar people's experiences with loved ones who have this disorder because I want to understand their perspectives a bit more as someone with it, and it's genuinely disheartening to read people generalizing about all or even most bipolar people's behaviors as if we're a monolith. The reality is that yes, some of us can behave like assholes when in an episode.
But that doesn't mean that certain behaviors are universal. I've never "discarded" anyone in my life during an episode. And neither have my friends who have the same disorder. That is not, to my knowledge, considered a symptom of our disorder (correct me if I'm wrong though). So why are some of these people acting like these behaviors apply to all of us?
This is why I never disclose that I have bipolar except to people I've been close to for years even though I want to be more open about it. My extended relatives are not aware that I have this since they hold some very... unfortunate beliefs about mentally ill people in general.
How do you all deal with this kind of stigma? I think I'm just gonna focus on how my own closest loved ones approach this stuff...