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WhaTHellsgoingonhere

(5,252 posts)
4. Someone did some digging last week and found a note from the Browns
Fri Feb 5, 2016, 03:41 PM
Feb 2016

It appears that Johnny may not have been diagnosed until he was with the Browns. Bipolar is a spectrum disorder (maybe you already know this, but others don't). In fact at the opposite end of the spectrum is Bipolar II, which is characterized by episodes of hypomania but mostly depression. Hypomania is low-grade mania. My guess is, he was just hypomanic in college. The fact that he never learned the playbook, just went out and improvised every play to me is a tell: inability to concentrate for a long period of time, similar to ADHD. But he didn't have a full "manic break" until he was with the Browns. Johnny's diagnosis is Bipolar I. It's characterized by hi-highs (full blown mania), and the lowest-lows (lower than people diagnosed with chronic depression). Johnny's going to crash, hard, go into a deep depression. That's when you can get a person with bipolar disorder. They've pretty much given up and stopped making their own (bad) decisions. Then they go on medication and -- remarkably, bipolar I is easy to treat -- begin to feel like a human again. Unfortunately, feeling human isn't feeling "normal," so it's "thanks for the help, doc, but I won't be needing this medication anymore" and we're off to the races, again. People with bipolar disorder are the population most at risk for suicide; it sounds like his family knows that. As I've said in another thread, the greatest artists, musicians, writers, and salesmen have bipolar I. They also self-medicate with drugs and alcohol and commit suicide. I don't think Johnny has experienced enough deep depressive episodes to get his shit together. This thing is still new to him, and for the most part, it's still "not that bad." We can only hope he one day realizes it's much worse than he ever knew and commits himself to recovery. The odds of that happening, given his fortune and fame... maybe less than 50%, which aren't bad odds for someone with bipolar disorder I in his position.

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