Bipolar disorder causes misconceptions to arise

DIANA TRASATTI ASST COPY EDITOR DLT722@CABRINI EDU

“I always knew that there was something wrong with me,” Wendy Odyniec said, as she brushed her dark hair back behind her ears and sipped her warm coffee. “A lot of years were spent just thinking I was crazy.”

Odyniec is just one of the 5.7 millions of Americans who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Bipolar disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, which leads one to have extreme up and down moods. During the manic state of the illness sufferers tend to engage in behavior that can be considered risky or dangerous. It is in the depressive state that they feel upset with what they’ve done and in a sense, crash.

Odyniec is no stranger to either side of the illness.

“I always felt there was a hole inside of me and nothing could fill that hole up,” Odyniec said.

In an effort to fill up that hole, Odyniec turned to drugs and alcohol at the age of 11.

Being misdiagnosed as hyper, she was given Valium, which the doctors hoped would calm her down. By the age of 16, Odyniec and her friends were all taking the Valium, a way to combat their “hyper-activity.”

“It really wasn’t the right answer, but I didn’t know