Bipolar recovery – a professional appearance can help

Regardless of diagnosis professionalism makes us effective

As we start to recover from years of disorder and medication, it is easy to get very enthusiastic and to start to write and write. People diagnosed with bipolar and not on too much medication are often prolific writers. Before the bipolar diagnosis was created in 1980, eccentric or energetic or free-thinking people would tend to write more than the ‘average’ person who would be going to work,  bringing up children, decorating, gardening, playing sports…

As the diagnosis has increased in popularity the ease of creating articles and publishing happens to have also become easier and relatively cheaper.

There is a hazard here. A lot of us are ‘fired up’ with enthusiasm for change and this can lead to quantity-rather-than-quality. Quantity is great and hundreds of articles are now published every day as we share what we have been through, what we have discovered and how urgently change is needed to stop more people dying needlessly from the bipolar disorder diagnosis. However, if we are to be effective quality is essential.

Two thoughts on improving quality of articles written by ex-bipolar people:

1. Who is checking what we write before publication? Editors are hard to find. I mainly get feedback from friends after publication. This is not ideal. New readers see mistakes and this does not help to build trust. Sometimes something as simple as a word word put in twice can distract enough that the main message gets ignored.

2. Appearance is sometimes as important as the words. Colourful, bright, enthusiastic can be good, but overall it is a professional look that is usually needed if we are going to communicate with the professionals who have influence.

One change I have made today is to pay Word-press to remove the irrelevant adverts that were being posted here.  A strange thing to need to do, but I believe well worth it as readers will be able to give their full attention to what is being said.

I am looking for volunteers – if you spot errors in my posts or pages anywhere on the internet please  let me know. I need an improving reputation if I am to persuade doctors and psychiatrists to start rethinking bipolar and seeing the very emotional people behind the diagnosis.

If you are working on eliminating bipolar or recovery, I may be able to return the favour and review articles for you.