Bipolar People: A Menace or an Aid to Society?

Today We Are Free

My friends. My brothers. My sisters. Today is the day we all come together in remembrance of a mental disorder that we all have stumbled upon. Today is an awareness to people who have yet to understand who we really are.

But who are we?

Are we a menace to society?

Or are we an aid to society?

That’s the question I sometimes ask myself. And the hardest philosophical question a bipolar person may ask themselves is: What is the meaning of life?

And the more we ask ourselves that question, the more meaningless life becomes. That’s why some of our brothers have killed themselves by overdosing on pills. That’s why some of our sisters have killed themselves by hanging themselves inside their bedrooms. And I can’t blame them or call them selfish for killing themselves because these are the soldiers who were killed in the war. These are the soldiers who never wanted to join this war.

But here we are standing today as the remaining soldiers who endured the everyday struggles of life. Here we are standing today as veterans who wear their badges proud. Here we are standing today waving our flags as we march towards this world filled with pride and honor and most importantly freedom. Freedom from the oppression of some people who thinks that we’re freaks. Freedom from the oppression of some people who thinks we’re not capable of living a normal life. Freedom from the oppression of ourselves who thinks that we don’t have what it takes to live a normal life or to simply be happy. Freedom from the thought that we’re alone but, in reality, we’re not.

So who are we?

Are we a menace to society?

Or are we an aid to society?

I feel like it’s a matter of choice whether or not we are willing to accept that we have bipolar disorder. If we are willing to shout it out from the rooftops of the world. And that’s the time we start being humble, that’s the time we start seeking help from professional doctors. Bipolar disorder can only be controlled. And when it is controlled, it can be beautiful.

History shows it to be with great novelists and poets like:

1. Lord Byron
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. Charles Dickens
4. William Faulkner
5. Alan Garner
6. F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. John Keats
8. Edgar Allan Poe
9. Sara Teasdale
10. Mark Twain
11. Virginia Woolf

So are bipolar people a menace or an aid?

I’d like to think they’re an aid. I’d like to think they’re people who bring inspiration to the world with their creativity. I’d like to think that they’re free.

Because today, we are free.