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Comment by aneth4 | Hacker News Reader

Can you provide more information about which brain disorder?

People with mood disorders (e.g. depression, bipolar, cyclothymia) and psychotic illnesses (e.g. bipolar, schizophrenia, schizoaffective) are at elevated risk of suicide. People with anxiety disorders (e.g. social anxiety, OCD) also tend to be prone to depression.

I'm not a big fan of diagnostic labels. Every individual is a different case. [disclaimer, worked in acute mental health, and brain injury rehab total seven years, before getting sucked into the software and analytics industries]

The description, from Aaron's writings, sounds like untreated (and possibly undiagnosed) bipolar.

I may be seeing this through bipolar-coloured glasses - I don't have it myself, but I have loved ones with it and know very well what it looks like from outside. It's not normal ups and downs of mood, it can be really scary stuff.

The legal case probably didn't help, but it's quite possible there could have been no way to stop this short of someone present on depression watch.

It's a way of describing "depression" in a way that doesn't feel compatible with blame.

He was more accurately describing bipolar disorder, whether he realized it or not.

Are you implying that depression or BPD is 'compatibile with blame'? If so, that's absurd.

I think he meant that there's a stigma associated with depression—that many of us unfortunately view depression as the "fault" of depressed individuals, as if it were some sort of choice they make.

No one would ever blame you for a [genetic] heart disorder. In the same way, no one would ever blame you for a [genetic] brain disorder. Phrasing it as such removes some of the stigma.

I used to use the analogy of type I diabetes, but now people are mixing it up with type II.

I think that the way to beat the stigma is talk openly about it.

> I think that the way to beat the stigma is talk openly about it.

Easier to say than to do. If you're depressed / bipolar / schizophrenic and talk about it openly it can make people very uncomfortable, which can result in their not wanting to be around you, which can result in further isolation for you, which can make your situation worse.

It can be. I've found that being very matter-of-fact about it works for me, but I have a reasonably social personality.

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