Hannah K Jung

my uwcsea story

A Silent Challenge- Writer’s Fortnight

Here is the link for my Writer’s Fortnight Article on a google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uQu5joR4fSm1uB59RNKBo6Di9RnhXKuqtt30bEuPw9A/edit

A Silent Challenge
A victim of Bipolar Disorder

This photograph represents how quickly one with bipolar can switch emotionally. 

Bipolar is like a predator. At times, the brutal creature lays low at rest just waiting for its next attack. It leaves the victim alone. In this time, their personalities and feelings blossom with a slight glow. Other times, it bites, leaving marks all over its prey. The victim suffers as it is drained of happiness. The trade-off of emotions leaves the soul deprived. 

Emma Nicholls, a psychologist, and therapist in mental health, drugs, and alcohol, remarks that bipolar sparks major mood shifts as well as episodes in depression and manic phases where energy is very high, a very unstable condition. 

About 46 million people worldwide struggle with bipolar. Even here, in our own UWC community, members have been impacted by having this condition or even knowing somebody who does. 

A person in our UWC community, for example, witnessed a person she held very deeply in her heart transform into a complete stranger because of bipolar disorder. A member of her family, Emily (real name not in use for privacy), was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  One could describe Emily as an angel; her kindness was displayed around every aspect of her, and the respect others had for her was immense.  

Due to Emily’s illness, completing daily tasks started to become an issue. Keeping her marriage intact, raising a child and other aspects in her personal life started to fall apart. Responsibilities piled on but every waking moment, her energy, memory and concentration started diminishing.

Through a study conducted by The University of Texas Health Science Center, sixty-nine bipolar people who matched demographically, underwent an impairment test. Thirty-four people had a history of psychotic symptoms, thirty-five people had no history of psychotic symptoms. Additionally,  thirty-five healthy patients were tested. Test subjects with bipolar were found to have episodic memory and shorter attention spans. In those with psychosis, they were found to have difficulty on a functioning level. 

Walker. Craig F. A patient removes several pills from her prescription bottle. Digital image. AmericanPress. AmericanPress, 29. Jan. 2019. Web. 10. April. 2020. 

According to Dr Jeanne Segal, an expert in psychology and sociology, there are multiple methods that one can use to help cope with this consuming illness. Getting involved with professional treatment, following routines and therapy etc. One thing to avoid is self-medication or ingesting certain products that may affect manic phases and episodes. 

Unfortunately for Emily, although she was receiving professional treatment, therapy and medication, it was not enough. She started self-medicating with alcohol and drugs.

Reported by the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), self-medication was seen highest by those with Bipolar disorder with 41% out of the total people that underwent the survey. 

Is it really Emily’s fault? Should it be the prey always watching it’s back to see when the predator will stop lurking in the background and actually attack? With no one looking out for those with targets on their back, of course they would just like to forget and live in a blur. Anyone would want to save themselves from pain. 

Getting professional help but having no one around is a real struggle. There is a lack of support. Even in tough times for perfectly healthy beings, we always need someone around to help us, to push us further, to get us through hard times. Sometimes, to guide them. 

With Emily undergoing all these changes in her life, having the people closest to her drift away is hard to watch. It hits harder to feel them slipping away.

People close to Emily have distance themselves because of the lost hope. Emily’s step to consistent self-medication has built a wall between her and society in general. Bipolar does not simply strike the person suffering with it, it pounces on everybody surrounding him/her.  

What is needed is support for the victim of bipolar. Values such as diversity and acceptance play a big role in the UWC community. Everyone is supportive of differences such as culture, race, those in the LGBTQ+ community and more. However, all we can provide is links and posters raising awareness to those with mental differences. 

In this environment that is blessed with so many materials and resources, there is so much more we can do to help create support for those who need it. Guidance Counselors are not sufficient as it is one on one. Yes they get the support from a professional, but is one person really enough to impact someone or somebody that feels alone or feels as if everyone is slipping away from them? 

Emily’s psychosis started increasing and her paranoia only got worse. Her paranoia surrounds her thinking that everyone was out to get her. Science and psychology has proven this plausible. Because of the multiple changes in mood, thinking is altered and therefore results in what is known as psychosis (hallucinations and delusions) and paranoia. 

In this way, the lurking predator has once again attacked. Not only in leaving a scar but changing a mentality and thinking. It has kindled a fear of not only herself but for someone around her. 

Emily’s paranoia has manifested itself to drive her to keep her child’s own passport away from him. Although it seems that she is trapping her son, her belief is that after she gives him his passport, he will leave her. And if Emily has one fear, her fear is losing people close to her.

For those similar to Emily in our community, we need to do more to help raise awareness. Even if there is the slightest chance of making a difference, we should take action. Go back to metaphor. An idea such as a support group that encourages reaching out might be able to help. But without trying, how will we know? 

Bipolar is a fierce and dangerous predator that threatens families, friends and community. It is not Emily’s fault that she hallucinates and that this has evoked fear. The fact that she is trying to protect the ones she loves demonstrates her good intentions and that she shouldn’t be blamed for being a “crazy person.” 

In daily life, you might come in contact with those who are also victims of this invisible disease. But don’t simply walk away and give up on them. Fight for them and at least attempt to help them. Those lost sufferers cannot overcome this illness alone. They need others to help aid them and get them at least for a couple seconds back to who they once were. 

Help the prey fight against the predator, don’t let the predator consume the prey. 

 

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3 Comments

  1. kwak16804@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

    I really enjoyed reading this piece of writing, it is very informative with new knowledge that I wouldn’t have otherwise picked up. I think the extensive research really shows itself in your writing, as you cite different sources and statistics to add credibility to what you are saying. You linked it back to UWCSEA in the end which was effective, as well as ending the piece with an impactful single-liner. Anyway, good job, yay 🙂

  2. Sebastian Larsson

    I think you portrayed what being bipolar means, for both the ones who have it and those who know who do, very well. You continuously relate to Emily’s experiences and the difficulty for her to cope with them. You also referred to the stigma surrounding being bipolar and how that affects them, which was eye-opening for the reader. I think you could have added one or two more images in order to better visualize her experiences for the reader, but overall I think that this article was well thought out and effectively executed.

  3. anand96165@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

    This article is very informative, and although it’s a serious issue that leaves us feeling sad, you’ve managed to share some ways through which we can try and help those suffering. There were some great citations and statistics to support the statements you made. It was a good read 🙂

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