What is it about?
Twelve years ago, in a BBC documentary, Stephen Fry opened up about his diagnosis of ‘manic depression’, also called bipolar disorder. In the series, he asked thirteen individuals with bipolar disorder whether they would press a hypothetical button to turn it off if given the chance. In an interview on a later occasion, Fry stated that out of the thirteen interviewees, only about two would actually press the button to forever remove their bipolarity, whilst the majority would not. This seems to challenge the assumption that bipolar disorder is a mental health problem to be treated.
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Why is it important?
We decided to expand on Fry’s extraordinary button question and asked 103 people with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder - in an international survey - whether they would press a button to turn their bipolarity off forever. Contrary to Fry’s findings, we found that the majority - 75 people - would want turn their bipolar disorder off; whilst a significant minority of 28 people would not. When we asked about the reasons for why they would or would not press the button, people reported a variety of reasons for both scenarios, encapsulating both resentment and appreciation for their bipolarity. Many people said that their bipolar was a part of their identity, and one person stated that: “I would NOT want to ‘turn off’ being Bi-Polar because I feel it is a part of my personality. I wouldn’t be ‘ME’”. Others explained that their bipolar had made them more empathic towards other people’s feelings; and more energetic, productive and creative. Yet the negative feature were also clear - the depression - and the loss of control and embarrassment after going high. So, it appears that the true picture is one of conflicting views about the condition. Our study is the first to shed equal light on both the positive and negative experiences of bipolar disorder, beyond the high versus the low moods. Health care professionals should consider all of the different individual experiences when aiming to improve their lives. Indeed, people in the study also had a variety of both helpful and unhelpful experiences with health care professionals.
Perspectives
Siri Folstad, the first author of the research, currently studying for a Masters of Research in Psychology at the University of Manchester, said “there needs to be a change in the way people are treated within healthcare, based largely on their diagnosis, but rather as multi-dimensional people with a range of experiences. People with mental health difficulties need to be enabled to regain control over their own lives, on their own terms, within their own time frame.”
Warren Mansell
University of Manchester
We have demonstrated that there is a large variability in the experiences of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In our study, this became apparent when people wrote freely about their experiences and opinions after having answered a superficially clear-cut yes/no question. Our study is not clear-cut, it does not provide a sole answer and it is not a solution for health care professionals. However, it should encourage health care professionals to listen to each individual person who have been given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in order to understand their individual experiences. It should also encourage families and people in the lives of these individuals to not make assumptions based on stereotypical views, but rather to listen to what their friend, spouse, colleague or child might be experiencing. Lastly, it should encourage researchers and policy makers to take a critical look at the existing literature and develop some more qualitative and exploratory studies that encapsulate more of the experiences of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Siri Folstad
University of Manchester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ‘The Button Question’: A Mixed-Methods Study of Whether Patients Want to Keep or Remove Bipolar Disorder and the Reasons for their Decision, Journal of Affective Disorders, November 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.11.025.
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