Hi and Welcome Bipolar.... I think bullies are just bullies and want an excuse to hurt someone else
If someone is using bipolar to try and hurt you then I think that that's their excuse to lash out at you..
They're angry cowards...I don't know the circumstance of the bullying so it's hard to say what to do about it
A kid in school would be different then an adult for instance
However I'd just walk away and not engage in the game at all

I agree with suncloud. Walking away is the best thing and not engage into the ignorance

The reason I posted this was because i wanted to hear from Bipolars who have dealt with these situations.

I think a child who had been diagnosed with Bipolar may suffer the same bullying as a child who had not been diagnosed with Bipolar.

In an adult situation, as many Bipolars are diagnosed in early adulthood, life has already taken control with responsibility. Therefore roots have been settled and a greater sense of entrapment may be felt when people around them make life harder.

It could be important to discuss this as others maybe in this situation due to the common timings of diagnoses. By the time diagnoses and hopefully medication has settled in, an adult brain and ideas maybe forming.

When you are bullied in this state of mind, how do people deal with it? Sharing experiences of how people have dealt with adult situations when they have responsibilities whilst dealing with the difficulties of Bipolar and unfortunately the lack of understanding from their peers or family.

Sometimes walking away is not an answer. Sometimes in life you can not walk away or disengage. Responsibilities tell us that.

Maybe people have stories to share of different scenarios that can help and bring strength to all.

A lot of people on here have had to deal with the stigma so I don't know if that's what you're referring to??

Perhaps if you write an example of what you mean it would help?

In my opinion this is what has driven me to learn to communicate more "socially appropriate" so the people that do this kind of bullying can HEAR me. People have trouble hearing drama sometimes or over animated individuals. I am dramatic and animated and haven't gotten my point across effectively sometimes because of that. I walk to the beat of my own drummer and am unconventional and that is the way I will stay..but when I need to be heard I have to use skills to be heard.

What I mean is lowering your tone of voice, knowing what you will say in a direct manner, and being able to recognize "rabbit trails" others might take you down to throw you off point. DBT teaches interpersonal relationships with all this in there. Or therapy could teach a person this or a good book about DBT could teach a person this. Having a support group to talk to others about this is helpful as well.

I had never heard of DBT, I have just read a little about it and it is very interesting and I will definitely read more.

Thank you Mayismerry, I found this information very helpful and I am sure others will too.

I think I have to "recognize" when I am being bullied before I can deal with it. Many times in my life I was bullied and I dealt with it by re-coiling in fear. Usually this is what the bully expects, Isn't it?

The coping skills I learned as a child carried on with me for a long time until I worked on "knowing my true self" and "building confidence". I had to learn not to feel inferior to others, hence, allowing them to bully me.

My father was a bully. He criticized, belittled, and expected far more than any of us could give. I learned that I was not worthy or talented enough to live up to anyone's expectations so I stopped trying. I became bitter and introverted. I had no real communication skills and hurt others the way I was hurt.

I was diagnosed at age 18 and began therapy that helped me grow beyond what I was "conditioned" to feel or believe, or allow others to do to me. I learned to see my fathers actions as a condition of his own childhood environment.

As I learned, I was able to recognize the difference from someone bullying me and my own low self esteem issues that skewed my perception.

I worked for a group of doctors as their scheduler. Each doctor had his own nurse. I had to relate and communicate with all of them. Out of five, one always had a air of being better than anyone else. She was arrogant with her co-workers and the patients. She liked to zero in on me with her sarcastic remarks, criticisms, nasty moods. I recognized this as a form of bullying. I didn't like it but I did not cower to it as I had with others in the past. I would walk away from her calmly and go on with my business. That wasn't working.

I went to business school and earned a degree as an Executive Administrative Assistant. In those days that degree was a big deal. One of the docs I worked for decided to open his own practice and he asked me to go with him and run his office. And, maybe you guessed it, the same nurse (bully) was asked to go with him. The difference was that I was now HER boss and she didn't like it much. She continued. So, I learned all I could about her job. The only thing I could not do after 6 months, was give injections. When I was sick she could not do my job but when she was sick, I could do hers. This intimidated her, but she continued.

Eventually, I went to the doctor and explained how she had acted the past years and suggested that she be let go. He investigated my accusations with previous employees from the other office and with employees at our current office. He came to the conclusion it was best to let her go.

My purpose to this story, while long, is to say that we can change our situation. We can change our perception or reality by building our own life and succeeding in those ways that others would like us to believe we can't. As an adult, I cannot be bullied unless I allow myself to be. The circumstances may not always make it easy for us to walk away. So, we have to be smart and learn ways to move beyond the bully and see who we really are. The best way to do that is to "grow" in all situations presented to us, including bullying.

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) also teaches some very important principles and skills. It helps us recognize learned behaviors and develop new behaviors that are more beneficial. It is an investment of time and energy but very worth it.

I haven't ever had someone pick on me for being BP but that is probably due in large part to the fact that not many people know. I do think bullies are, as SunCloud said, cowards or feel so bad about themselves that belittling others is the only way they can feel superior.

If there is a chance for it, walk away or refuse to engage. For better or worse, I have told people that if they want to fight, they'll have to throw the first blow (because in school, that means they get suspended and I wouldn't)

I almost never got picked on and even in those cases I always had the option to walk away (whether I picked that option or not) so I don't know of an example where it wasn't an option unless the other person started throwing punches

Some people who feel sorry for themselves use the "I'm bipolar" as a crutch, something to blame all their actions on when they KNOW they are just being assholes.

I got bullied for having it. It was the dumbest thing. I was one of the poor souls who was diagnosed young, like 16 (which I'm kind of glad because I'm still young. I'm 25 and I had that much time to get my shit under control). Anyway I had told a friend who I trusted. I was not a bully to anyone, I was just angry. I'd throw fits. I didn't sit there and be mean to people for no reason, but she told EVERYONE and then it was either snickering comments behind my back or saying stuff like that it was for attention and all this nonsense.

Where I grew up in the country, people didn't really know shit about any sort of thing like that because all the "crazy" people are all pill heads or they run some meth lab. I was "crazy" because no one understood. There were other kids who were diagnosed with one thing or another but it seemed like no one really picked on them like they did me.And the thing is, is that half of them who were diagnosed with something was bragging about it (which makes me doubt they even had it). But of course there were others in my boat who were not making it all up, and were not "doing it for attention"

This bully, using the excuse that they're bipolar sounds like a bunch of horse shit to me. I mean I'm no one to judge anyone, but it just seems like thats an excuse, a crutch. "The devil made me do it".

Sorry for the long post I just HATE bullies and I hate people who cry wolf as well. And don't get called out on it or made fun of. People are just mean and don't want to face the fact that they're ugly on the inside.

AHH! I didn't even answer your question, sorry.

Let me just say, all that ended when I went to college because the people at my school were just idiots.

When I would get picked on I would usually fight back. I never hit anyone, I don't like that. But I would back people into corners screaming at them if they said something to me, or if I overheard it and let it go on a minute to make sure they were talking about me. The first few months after word got out that that's why I was so "weird" (I guess) I just sat there and took it. Went and cried in the bathroom. Then one day something snapped and I flipped a desk over in class after some blonde twat said I'd be "cute in a strait jacket" or some smartass, unnecessary, random, out of the blue statement. I had done nothing to this girl. I didn't become a bully, I just didn't let ANY shit slide. And of course whoever I flipped out on was always the victim. They thought it was the fact that I was bipolar that I was flipping out when they'd trash talk me. No, not really, I just got sick of being picked at for something I couldn't help.

Senior year I had no friends. LOL That's my sob story. Anyway. Stand up to the assholes. Don't be a doormat, I had a time where I was and I did not take it anymore. I woke up one day and I just said "I will be damned if anyone says a word today." Once high school ended and I went to college, I never once got picked on.

Weird you posted this. At this very moment my sister just sent me a text saying "and FU" by the way because I wouldn't answer her crutch. Undependable, liar and uses her Bipolar as an excuse when she does it. Its not easy to walk away when my mother is in the middle defending her. Totally get it!

Oh, here comes another "if you ever talk to me again I'll kill you"

Its bad. She's been jealous since I was a kid and no idea why cause I got in a lot of trouble.

I think that the most important lesson I've ever learned in my adult life (and something that parents should teach their kids right from the start!) is that no one can make me feel anything. No one can make me feel any certain way.

*I* decide how I feel about something. *I* choose the way I feel!!

People can try to make me mad.
People can try to hurt my feelings.
People can try to make me feel guilty.

But only I dictate how I feel.

That cuts way down on the 'bullying', right there.
Some bullies are like trolls. You don't feed them, they go away.

Another 'fun' tactic to use when someone's being mean to you is to politely call them on it.

"Why are you making fun of me?"
Or "Are you trying to hurt me?"

That usually results in them backtracking and denying that they're making fun of you or doing anything wrong. They'll say that they're just joking around and that you're too sensitive.

The you just calmly say, "Well, I don't like when you do it, so don't to it anymore."

It takes a LOT for someone to get my goat!!
In fact, it only happens very rarely.

Now mind you, sometimes getting angry and/or feeling hurt is appropriate to the situation.
But once you fully take responsibility for how you react to anyone and anything, it's amazing how much less things negatively affect you.
As you say -- thick skin.

In your personal life, you should not have bullies in your life, if you can avoid it.
In the workplace, you will probably be better off working on coping techniques that will limit any and all unpleasantness.

I was at the very bottom of the pecking order, growing up.
I was at the mercy of EVERYONE!!

SurreyGuy, thinking more about it, I have experienced a small amount of bullying from my family. If I say something they disagree with or get really irritated, I am just 'being bipolar' like my opinion is invalid or tainted because of it. I've even had my Bipolar mother do that to me.

Sometimes I will blow it off because nothing matters anyway when I am down, and I will tear them a new one when I am manic.

Because of the way I was raised, I learned to bottle up everything inside until it gets too full and explodes (I still have a couple cabinet's worth of bottles waiting to be shook loose).

For the last few years, I have learned a large amount of apathy so that just about anything rolls right off like water on a duck's back.. I don't know if it's health (it's probably not) but it makes things easier for me.

I never even thought about it as bullying until now. I just thought that's just life and family being family lol.

I have to agree with mayismerry. DBT is useful for all of the things mayismerry listed.

DBT saved me! I was either going to hurt someone else or they were going to hurt me. I have been in DBT for two years. I have been able to handle situation that have presented themselves to me time and time again by using DBT skills. I think it also helped me not be someone that others would bully. I carry myself differently now. I am no longer the sick little puppy that will viciously bite if provoked. My family bullied me after I was diagnosed and lead others to do the same. I stayed in my house for a couple of years until I received DBT. Now I can go anywhere I want without fear of reacting in a way that would endanger someone or myself. I have also found great peace in so many ways with it.

CBT has helped some also, but in a different way. DBT showed me how I should interact with others and how "in a perfect world" others should act with me. It also taught me how to handle when someone from a "not so perfect world" engages me.