The Wrong Diagnosis — Bipolar Disorder, Misdiagnosis, and What Black People Deserve to Know

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager. What I know now, as both a clinician and as the adult that teenager became, is that I was far too young for that diagnosis to be made with any real confidence, and that what I was actually experiencing was much better explained by something else entirely. The years I spent understanding myself through a framework that didn't fit are the most honest illustration I have of what happens when Black people receive a diagnosis from a system that has never been culturally neutral in how it sees us.This episode is about bipolar disorder, what it actually is, how it presents differently in Black bodies, and why Black men are dramatically overdiagnosed with schizophrenia when what they are experiencing is mania, and why Black women's hypomanic episodes get read as aggression and instability rather than as symptoms of a condition that deserves treatment. We are also talking about what it means to question a diagnosis that doesn't fit, to advocate for yourself in a system that has historically made that very difficult for Black people to do, and what accurate diagnosis actually makes possible when you finally find it.This is the fourth episode in a four part mental health series and it is the one about the right to be seen clearly.If anything in this episode brings up feelings that feel bigger than you can hold, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by call or text, any time.Find me on Instagram, Threads or Twitter @darrynkrobinson. Interested in working with me? Check out my website at holistichealingtherapy.co