I am an extremely competent individual. I’m intelligent, hard-working, perfectionistic and driven. I’m gentle, kind, giving, funny and witty. I’m a great employee and I like to think pretty good friend. But like many of my mentally ill brethren, I feel like I have to keep proving over and over how competent I am due to the unfortunate mental illness stereotypes. People tend to think of bipolars in a negative light.

Proving Competence In Spite of Mental Illness

And this is just the topic Schwandy, from Mommy Vs. Maddness will be discussing in her post next week. In her own words:

I have a fear because of my Bipolar that my competency will not be validated and will be replaced by the stereotypes of the mentally ill.  So I often find myself desperately fighting the urge to over compensate for my perceived competence and vulnerabilities.

In Schwandy’s case, of course, she is a mother and thus has even more to prove. She’s a postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis survivor and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her guest post next week.

Interested in writing a guest post? Let me know. I’d love to have you.