Writing Bipolar Characters!
So, you’ve got a bipolar character. What do?
As someone who is A.) A writer and B.) Bipolar, I thought I’d put together a little bit of advice on the matter. First things first:
What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar is one of the “big” (that is, most well-known) mental health issues. However, because it is so well-known, there is a ton of misinformation out there about what bipolar disorder actually is.
Contrary to common belief, bipolar disorder doesn’t just mean you have really rapidly shifting moods. As a matter of fact, a large number of those with BD don’t experience rapid shifting of moods at all.
Additionally, BD doesn’t just refer to any old shifts in moods (angry, happy, sad, etc.) BD specifically refers to the shifts between “depression” and “mania” (though there are some other mood states associated with bipolar disorder as well - we’ll get to that in a second.
So the first thing to realize is that simply writing a character as very “moody” or as experiencing sudden changes in mood for no reason does not a bipolar character make.
More after the jump:
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