Bisexual and Bipolar

 

available at Clothesline Apparel Co.

I'm not naive enough to believe that everyone in the whole wide world will be accepting of those who are different than them. I am hopeful enough to think that if we keep trying we can bridge those gaps especially as we share our stories with one another. 

Social media is great for that. 

We can connect and learn from and receive validation from different people all over the world. It has the incredible power for us to build a community that spans across the entire globe. It allows us to connect with and learn about ways of life far different than our own. It gives us this wondrous opportunity to seek new experiences that we may otherwise never get to live through. 

Then there is also the nasty side. 

The side that leaves comments seeking to invalidate or tear down someone else. I've received those comments a few times, mostly when I ventured my small business over to a politically charged message on merch. But this was the first time I'd ever had my sexuality so blatantly invalidated online. 

You see, I've never really "come out" as being bisexual to friends and family. I never met a woman that I dated seriously enough to have it be an issue. And then because I was in straight passing relationships I just sort of hid and believed that maybe I wasn't really bisexual since I was with a man. 

But that is simply not true!

And so I've started to speak up about things and share things from my life. I shared one such thing a few weeks ago, and it was a silly little thing. I just made a video talking about how M brought me home a rainbow pride bag from his work and how that made me feel seen and that's why I love this one man. The response has been overwhelming in the best way from others sharing their bisexual experiences and saying how their relationship was also like this. It was just a happy moment in time. 

Of course one guy said I only love him because he buys me stuff I don't need. First of all, everyone needs tote bags. Like all of the time. Second of all, the bag was free. And lastly, let's not get started on the list of things that M buys for me. I think that commenters head would literally explode! 

Then a woman commented that she was sick of seeing women in straight passing relationships share stuff like this seeking validation. She deleted her comment, but not before I video replied to her. It was just incredibly invalidating. 

Because so what if you seek a community to validate your thoughts and feelings. As someone who is bipolar I frequently do not trust my own thoughts and feelings, so having that support system is invaluable. Would it be amazing if we only needed ourselves for validation? Sure! But is it weird or abnormal to seek support and validation from our fellow humans? Not at all. 

What's weird is scrolling through social media and seeing someone's video wherein they are super happy and not hurting anyone else and choosing to leave a negative or rude or demeaning comment on it. Seriously, get help. 

P.S. I'd love it if YOU followed me on social media! The links are at the top of this page! Let's connect!