Bipolar Vs. ADHD
I've been pretty much at odds against my new boss these last few days, for reasons that were mysterious even to me, until I learned that he was diagnosed with ADHD. In theory, I definitely feel kinship with anyone suffering from any sort of mental illness, yet in my day-to-day life I always seem to be in conflict with those suffering from attention deficit disorders or similar syndromes.
So today I did a quick google search of "ADHD vs. Bipolar," not expecting to find anything truly enlightening, wyen I ran into an article on AdhdNews.com by Charles Popper called "Diagnosing Bipolar vs. ADHD" which not only made it clear that these two disorders, which can superficially result in similar outcomes (and these two diseases, I should point out, could likely co-exist in some, or even many, cases, so I don't want to create an either/or situation here, okay, I'm dealing with generalities) are often products of impulses that are quite different from each other.
(I will also add that Popper, writing on an ADHD website, is writing for ADHD sufferers and sometimes seems to fall victim to a stereotype where bipolar kids are problem children and ADHD sufferers are misunderstood victims. It's a little unfair, but how could he not be biased?)
In any case, here are the two relevent paragraphs of his essay, and I'm re-typing these quotes here rather than cutting and pasting because I only have access to my Blackberry so please forgive the inevitable typos. Not only do these quotes bolster my idea that there's a very possible conflict between these two common mental illnesses, but they also provide the final pieces of evidence that if it turns out I'm not bipolar, than nobody in this world is bipolar:
"The misbehavior of children who are ADHD is often accidental. If they crash into a wall (or a limit or an authority figure), it is often due to oblivious inattentiveness. The child who is bipolar, on the other hand, is more likely to crash into a wall with intent, for the sake of challenging its presence. Children who are bipolar are highly aware of "the wall" and are sensitive to ways of creating the biggest feeling of impact or challenge to it..."
"While a child who is ADHD may engage in self-endangering behavior without noticing the danger, the child who is bipolar enjoys the danger and seeks it out. The child who is bipolar is intentionally dare-devilish (yet needle-phobia is quite prevalent)..."
Two final thoughts here:
1. Yes of course bipolar people tend to be needle-phobic, otherwise our kind would have been entirely eliminated a century ago.
2. Okay so this essay makes us look like jerks, I understand this, but, let's face it, I'm pretty sure that when many of you read this you took some measure of pride that our natural mode is against authority and for taking risks...
So today I did a quick google search of "ADHD vs. Bipolar," not expecting to find anything truly enlightening, wyen I ran into an article on AdhdNews.com by Charles Popper called "Diagnosing Bipolar vs. ADHD" which not only made it clear that these two disorders, which can superficially result in similar outcomes (and these two diseases, I should point out, could likely co-exist in some, or even many, cases, so I don't want to create an either/or situation here, okay, I'm dealing with generalities) are often products of impulses that are quite different from each other.
(I will also add that Popper, writing on an ADHD website, is writing for ADHD sufferers and sometimes seems to fall victim to a stereotype where bipolar kids are problem children and ADHD sufferers are misunderstood victims. It's a little unfair, but how could he not be biased?)
In any case, here are the two relevent paragraphs of his essay, and I'm re-typing these quotes here rather than cutting and pasting because I only have access to my Blackberry so please forgive the inevitable typos. Not only do these quotes bolster my idea that there's a very possible conflict between these two common mental illnesses, but they also provide the final pieces of evidence that if it turns out I'm not bipolar, than nobody in this world is bipolar:
"The misbehavior of children who are ADHD is often accidental. If they crash into a wall (or a limit or an authority figure), it is often due to oblivious inattentiveness. The child who is bipolar, on the other hand, is more likely to crash into a wall with intent, for the sake of challenging its presence. Children who are bipolar are highly aware of "the wall" and are sensitive to ways of creating the biggest feeling of impact or challenge to it..."
"While a child who is ADHD may engage in self-endangering behavior without noticing the danger, the child who is bipolar enjoys the danger and seeks it out. The child who is bipolar is intentionally dare-devilish (yet needle-phobia is quite prevalent)..."
Two final thoughts here:
1. Yes of course bipolar people tend to be needle-phobic, otherwise our kind would have been entirely eliminated a century ago.
2. Okay so this essay makes us look like jerks, I understand this, but, let's face it, I'm pretty sure that when many of you read this you took some measure of pride that our natural mode is against authority and for taking risks...