March 30 is World Bipolar Day. I have written about this before also. This year, I started wondering if World Bipolar Day has any real-world impact? There are many stated goals for World Bipolar Day, but have we made any progress toward those goals, and has any of that progress come from World Bipolar Day itself? Do awareness days do anything for anyone?
goals of world bipolar day
World Bipolar Day was started on 30 March 2014. March 30 was chosen because it was Vincent van Gogh’s birthday and people had posthumously diagnosed him with bipolar disorder.
(Of course, people have also posthumously diagnosed them with schizophrenia. It is impossible to accurately diagnose someone who lived in the 19th century using today’s criteria. It is interesting that professionals, quite rightly, refuse to diagnose people who are not their patients today, and yet no one has any objection to doing the same with a deceased person about whom little is known. This is hypocritical and wrong. But I digress…)
World Bipolar Day was brought to life by several organizations: International Bipolar Foundation, International Society for Bipolar Disorder and Asian Network of Bipolar Disorder. International Bipolar Foundation calls for World Bipolar Day Is:
. . . To bring global awareness to bipolar disorders and eliminate social stigma. Through international collaboration, World Bipolar Day aims to provide information about bipolar disorders to the world population which will educate and improve sensitivity to the disease.
(I would like to focus on treatment money, equal access laws, disability rights, and other bipolar life-related issues, but that’s me.)
What do people do for World Bipolar Day?
World Bipolar Day is now recognized by many organizations including the National Institute of Mental Health and Health Canada. You will see information about it in the media and calls to action by various organizations. Advocates like me use this as an excuse to share real-life stories of living with bipolar disorder and fact-based information about the illness. Social media is usually full of World Bipolar Day information, hashtags, and there are a lot of question-and-answer sessions on that day.
Has World Bipolar Day made any impact on the lives of people suffering from bipolar disease?
You won’t be surprised to learn that many people with bipolar disorder (not to mention everyone else) have no idea it exists to this day. Not every person with bipolar disorder is included in advocacy efforts online or elsewhere. They are just living their lives. This is at least partly because the media does not give it the same attention as they do other illnesses, despite this serious mental illness affecting more than 2% of the population.
That said, the fact that World Bipolar Day has been celebrated every year since 2014 shows that visibility has increased. Now, all kinds of efforts take place on that day, including This is how the film is launched.
However, does visibility help anyone? I suspect the answer is yes. People fear what they don’t understand, and information increases understanding. Focusing on real people with bipolar disorder also addresses the issues that arise when someone does not (intentionally) come into contact with someone suffering from the illness. Although I’m not a big fan of pointing to famous people and saying, “Look mom, he has bipolar!“I suspect this will change the way some people view the disease.
all that translates Perhaps Little effect. I know that there is honestly no evidence that general awareness campaigns make a measurable difference to the lives of people with mental illness. Some people talk about them, yes. But that’s the point. Talking about an issue isn’t negative, but it doesn’t necessarily mean talking about laws, diagnoses, access to care, research dollars, etc. I agree that success is really hard to measure, but I found no evidence that it has had a positive impact on stigma, delayed diagnosis, disability burden, or early mortality over the past 12 years.
Do any kind of awareness campaigns help people suffering from the disease?
Interestingly, there is evidence of success for some disease-related awareness campaigns. Examples of this include:
The above campaigns led to improvements in things like screening, diagnosis and prescription filling.
I feel like there is evidence of the success of these campaigns because they have inspired people to Work. Awareness as knowledge is not enough. People know what HIV is—what people need to do is tests For this. Action-based campaigns may also be more effective for people suffering from mental illness.
What Will You Do to Affect Bipolar Disorder?
Perhaps, then, what we can do is focus on action every day. Yes, World Bipolar Day can be an excellent reminder and excuse to spread information, but if that information was focused on action on that day and every day, maybe we could make the lives of people with bipolar disorder a little bit better.
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