Questions and answers

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One of the Maine chapters had sent the web master an email relating to how we should talk about ourselves.

I would advise a couple of things though. The first relates to what is being taught in the mental health world these days and that is "Person First" In other words when I introduce myself to our group I say "Hi, my name is ____ and I am a person with bipolar disorder". As opposed to; "Hi, my name is ____ and I have bipolar disorder". This way we are not defining who we are by our disorder, rather we are a person first, that just so happens to have this disorder. It is a big help with our own "internal" stigma. Secondly as you may have noticed, not once have I called it an "illness or disease" as just the terms weigh heavily on ones imagination.....like I would not want to be thought of as "that is my friend ___, he has a mental illness." And what does it matter really what we call it as long as it has the least amount of effect on everyone...so I prefer to use the term Mental health disorder as it just seems much less stigmatized.