More recently than ever, many people push society to stop using politically incorrect terms so lightly (and in wrong ways). As I walk out of the elevator of my dorm building and onto my floor, I see signs put up by my RA. The main sign reads, “WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!” and around it are smaller signs that read, “That’s so gay,” “That test just raped me,” “I failed my test, I’m retarded,” and “Ewh, that’s so ghetto!” Sitting in my psychology class as we learned about mental illness and disorders, I began to see and understand that society abuses these types of labels as well. People regularly say, “You are so psycho,” or “Wow, you’re bipolar.”

Many people throw these terms around so lightly in a jokingly manner because they don’t necessarily think that the diseases actually exist; they think the symptoms are all in the patient’s head. However, these are mental disorders are real and should not to be joked about.They are biological medical conditions that can be diagnosed and treated.

Mood disorders are disturbances in emotion and are also referred to as affective disorders. Although the range of human emotions runs deep from intense sadness and despair to extreme happiness, most people just tend to stay in between those extremes.  Stress and other factors can push someone to the edge of these extremes, which is how some mood disorders come about.

Mood disorders are either classified as “Bipolar and Related Disorders,” or “Depressive Disorders.” Major Depressive disorder is when a deeply depressed mood comes on fairly suddenly and either seems to be too severe for the circumstances or exists without any external causes for sadness. However, I wanted to focus more on Bipolar disorder; this is when a person experiences periods of mood that can range from severe depression to manic episodes (excessive excitement, energy, and elation). Someone with this disorder could possibly feel normal and have manic episodes, or they could also experience episodes of depression.

I wanted to focus on this because a long time ago, my family came to realize that one of my aunts who married into our family had Bipolar Disorder. We began noticing that sometimes she would always be around and be extremely happy to see us and extremely talkative. Other times she just wouldn’t come around or would be extremely depressed and irritable. Being so young, I didn’t understand how someone could possibly be so happy one day and so sad the next. It is then that we found out that her mother also suffers from Bipolar disorder, and later we found out that her daughter suffers from it as well.

According to “Psychology,” by Ciccarelli White, more than 65 percent of people with bipolar disorder have at least one close relative with either bipolar disorder and major depression. Twin studies have shown that if one identical twin has either major depression or bipolar disorder, the chances that the other twin will also have it are 40 to 70 percent.

According to DBSA Alliance, bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the US population age 18 and older every year. DBSA also states that although bipolar disorder is equally common in women and men, research indicates that approximately three times as many women as men experience rapid cycling, which is seen in my aunt’s family.

Although there are medications to treat bipolar disorder, however there are times when my aunt prefers not to take them. These are times that my family can easily see that she is not being herself again. DBSA says that Nearly 9 out of 10 consumers with bipolar disorder are satisfied with their current medications, although side affects remain a problem. This is why my aunt sometimes does not want to take her medications.

So next time you joke around and call someone you got into an argument with “bipolar,” make sure you rethink that title because bipolar disorder is something that some people have to live with and revolve their lives around; it is not a fun thing to have.