A couple of weeks a ago I received an email from a visitor that basically said that they would never say “I am bipolar” because they are more than just a label and their identity is not bipolar disorder. I’ve also read about this opinion in a couple of other places on the web including in “The Ten Greatest Lies about Bipolar Disorder” by David Oliver at bipolarcentral.com. Below is the excerpt from the #2 lie - You can’t control bipolar disorder.

“One of the ways you can control the disorder is to use the term “have bipolar disorder” instead of “am bipolar.” When you say, “I am bipolar,” you give power to the disorder since you identify yourself it. When you say, “I have bipolar disorder,” however, you simply acknowledge that you have a medical/psychiatric condition. You realize that the bipolar disorder is NOT your identity. “

After receiving this email and reading this opinion elsewhere on the web, I asked myself a few questions. When a person says “I am bipolar” are they really saying that their identity is bipolar? Is a person giving more control to bipolar disorder by saying “I am bipolar” instead of “I have bipolar”? Does a person really identify less with bipolar disorder by using the words “I have” instead of “I am”?

My conclusion was that it really doesn’t make a difference whether you say “I am” or “I have”, either way the symptoms are still experienced the same regardless of how we reference them linguistically. I came to this conclusion by swapping the word “bipolar” with “hungry”. Out of social linguistic norms we often say things that are not completely grammatically correct, but we know what people are saying when they bend the rules of language. For example, when I say “I am hungry” I do not mean that my identity is only “hunger”. I am simply saying that “I” or the sensation of my body is experiencing the sensation of hunger. Whether I say “I am hungry” or “I have symptoms of hunger” the fact remains the same - the biological experience of hunger is still present. Using the words “I am” is simply linguistic convenience and a way of communicating with reference to your self. This linguistic process has nothing to do with transferring personal identity, but rather a way of stating that your experience of self includes the biological symptoms brought on by bipolar disorder, which is factually correct. In fact, an argument could easily be made to say that “I have bipolar” is just as grammatically inaccurate because we don’t ever possess or hold ownership over bipolar disorder. From what science currently understands, it is programmed into our biology and our biology is who we are.

So, is there really a benefit to saying “I have” instead of “I am”? Well, the only thing that I can think of is the possible gratification that stems from believing that there is a difference. If a person is convinced and believes that there is a difference then in their minds they will experience that difference whether it is real or not, but if your are like myself and you don’t see a difference, then saying “I am bipolar” is simply another way of saying “I have bipolar disorder” or my biological organism experiences sensations brought on by a biological disorder that the scientific community calls bipolar disorder.