What percentage of people with bipolar disorder are really "crazy"?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

There are those who are not taking care of themselves and refusing to take their medications. And there are those who are not aware that they have Bi-Polar Disease. It is very sad when we see on the news a person who has committed a crime and they say that he/she is Bi-Polar. There are people who have good character and those who don't and are not going to follow the law. There is such a stigma against those with Bi-Polar that many don't want to be "labeled." The odds of a person with Bi-Polar committing crimes is very low, very low. But that isn't what the media would have us believe. Unfortunately your uncle is one of the few. I would imagine that he wasn't taking his medication that would prevent any mania.

There are rapid cyclers who can change from hour to hour and those who become manic occassionally. But the right mood stablizer stops the mania completely. Please never listen to anybody who says the medications don't work. There are a few who have problems with the medications. But that is not the norm. Others may try to scare you and that is why some refuse to take medications and keep up with a psychiatrist.

Son with Bi-Polar and me also.

Actually the numbers are very low..... lower than the percentage of "normal" people who are violent.... take a look at the population of a prison... relatively few of the are Bipolar. If Bipolar caused you to be violent then you would see a much higher rate of Bipolar in prison populations and you don't. Being violent is NOT a symptom of Bipolar.. some people have violent tendancies but most do not. His inhibitions may be lowered due to the Bipolar but his violence is not caused by it. Even Bipolars who are "crazy" and hallucinate and have delusions are nor generally violent. You hear about non bipolar people killing people and doing insane things a lot more often than you hear about bipolars doing that stuff.

Bipolar by itself doesn't make people violent - it's substance abuse or can be a side effect of prescribed medications. For example, I had aggressive behaviors on ativan and adderall. antidepressants made my 2 brothers violent. We haven't been a problem like that off meds.

most people with bipolar have only a few episodes of mania in their lives. going off medication suddenly can make the episode a lot worse than it would have been had they never taken any medication because you get drug withdrawal problems. This is why people always say "he's off his meds." they don't realize though that even people without mental disorders will go crazy if they cold turkey off psych meds. Like they would get severe psychosis if they cold turkeyed off antipsychotics,,even if they never had psychosis before.

In my case, it's only while on meds that I did truly crazy things. Off meds, I'm depressed as hell, but my behavior is good.

I have was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 13 years ago. My anger has always been an issue, even while on meds. I can be manic or depressed and have very disturbing thoughts of killing others and my self. Sometimes it is a matter of adjusting meds. Therapy is very helpful, but I still suffer from very destructive thinking, getting help is the most important thing. Just because someone is violent doesn't meed they off their meds.

there is too much acceptance of labelling and this behaviour can be seen in other conditions its a loss of insight that enables control. its help more than punishment he needs. normal people can commit atrocities given conditions there is probably a root cause especially in our messed up society of too much rejection

The number seems quite high. Even those who don't tend to do really "Crazy" things tend to ruin every relationship they have. And when they marry and have children, it really can be disastrous!