Monday Aug 08, 2022

I am not my mental illness. I am a spiritual guide and bipolar with Alfredo Borodowski

Despite increased efforts and awareness around diversity, inclusion, and social justice, neurodiversity continues to be an underrepresented part of most organizations’ DEIB strategy (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging). Think about it in certain countries bipolar disorders can reach up to 4% of the population but we rarely hear about it at work.

Basically, we only have 2 conclusions about people with mental health disorders:

a) Either bipolar people are not well accepted in the workplace due to fear and misunderstanding.

b) Their mental illness is not something that prevents them from doing any job.

To tell you the truth –I don’t have the answer. That’s why I wanted to invite to Learn with Bessern someone who knows about it –not only because he acts as a counselor, but also because of his own experience with bipolar disorder. Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski is based in NY.

🔵 About our guest: Alfredo Borodowski Raised in Argentina he earned a law degree at the University of Buenos Aires then you were ordained as a rabbi and earned a doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he taught for over a decade.

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bipolarrabbi/

Website Bipolar Rabbi https://www.bipolarrabbi.com/

A little insight about bipolar disorder and its effects!!!

People with bipolar disorder have extreme mood swings that range from mania to depression. It affects an estimated 1 in 100 people worldwide, and research suggests a strong genetic component. Contrary to the myths about people with bipolar disorder, they generally don’t swing rapidly between moods from one moment to the next. Instead, they often experience weeks or months of depression, punctuated by manic episodes. During manic episodes, affected individuals might feel very up, energetic, and confident. However, during depressive periods, they may feel hopeless, angry, or suicidal. These individuals might feel incapable of keeping up with the commitments they made during a manic phase. They may also lose interest in things they usually love to do, or feel too tired to participate.

Insights from the podcast!

Biggest misconceptions about Bipolar disorder!!!

* We have to stop blaming people with mental illness.

* There is nothing in the mental illness itself, that give that person the character of being dangerous. Clearly somebody who has a mental illness and he's not taking care and he's still taking care and he's bullied and it's abused. We have a health care system, where to get any calling was served before a mental illness became elaborate. That is impossible to manage.

* People with severe mental illness such as depression can go up to harming themselves and committing suicide but it differs from person to person. They are usually of little to no harm to others.

What is the main responsibility of a person with a mental illness?

Depression is not a choice its a state of the body and the main responsibility of a person who is suffering from mental illness or mania is the responsibility towards themselves. This is in terms of watching who you are, the processes that follow and to have a plan set of action/ treatment.

Alfredo also points out towards the lack of resources that are available for people who require help or are in need to a psychiatrist.

What would Alfredo do to improve the challenges of people with Bipolar disorder?

* Firstly, he would like to create a movement where by people suffering from the disorder come together and demand their rights as well as stand for their equality. He believes that the mental illness community has not yet come together to be a force for themselves. He would like to bring the wisdom of those with the illness and showcase it to the world.

*"Every person suffering from mental illness is a life coach to the world." If the wisdom is articulated in a correct manner the society will flourish regardless.

*Alfredo would also want to make his next book run interactive in nature. Every chapter will have a link then it can be checked it on acceptance with Chapter One shame the chapter on self esteem, the chapter on uncertainty accepted on goals a chapter on exhaustion, but each section of the chapter will have a link and the reader will click the link go to a website can give his or her own wisdom. We are going to create the collective wisdom of mental illness and we are going to move the discussion from being victims from being perpetrators from being escape goal to being agents of wisdom.

Does the discussion on mental illness actually take place?

The answer is NO. that the mental illness community has not yet a pixelated message by which they go to the world with a positive wisdom. Okay, but I tell you COVID should have changed the equation, because one of the things of COVID is that people now know what depression is. Okay, people know now what anxiety, anxiety is. We are missing an opportunity. It should be a national discussion now on what is mental illness from the perspective of a greater empathy, bigger people now they have at least suffer or experience a little bit of what people with mental illness experience in a more chronic way. And I don't see that discussion taking place. I don't see the major organizations and national organizations that lead the discussion of mental illness. I don't see the now taking the opportunity of having a national discussion of empathy. We are now at a point like never before, where the population as a whole has had a taste of what depression is.

Some episodes of Learn with Bessern that you may be interested:

I don’t need to be fixed, I am successful with Autism with Sam Mitchell

https://podcast.bessern.co/e/i-don-t-need-to-be-fixed-i-am-successful-with-autism-with-sam-mitchell/

Thriving at Work despite ADHD or Dyslexia: Performance in a different way with Rose Thompson

https://youtu.be/CKPLNFCqpls

About this episode of Learn with Bessern

🎙️ This episode is hosted by Ivan Palomino.

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