Bimmer, I disagree.
IMHO, Ms. Nowak's behavior does NOT fit the pattern of bipolar disorder and/or a manic episode.
I happen to be living with bipolar disorder.
How do I explain this?
It's not an automatic, pat explanation. Anyone who's read my posts for any amount of time can testify that I don't suffer fools gladly, and am prone to a good old Danny Bonaduce-esque rant and rave every now and then....but that's a manifestation of CHARACTER, for better or for worse, not a symptom.
When you go manic, the main characteristic is that you feel as if you are on the top of the world and can do no wrong...a master of the universe, if you will. Extreme confidence, grandiosity, etc. Nowak embarks on this cross-country odyssey covertly, and dresses in a wig and trenchcoat....all examples of someone who feels vulnerable to attack, paranoid, ashamed of her actions, not wanting to be detected....a victimization attitude. This is not characteristic of a manic episode.
You feel INVINCIBLE under mania. You are above reproach.
I don't believe this woman intended to really hurt her victim. Does anyone here seriously believe that this national hero, would, in HOUSTON, have difficulty laying her hands on a truly deadly weapon if she really wanted to off someone? Puh-leeze..
This woman has been under an incredible amount of stress...she has children, and her nineteen-year marriage ended (for whatever reason) two weeks ago. She could have very well have just snapped....this is no excuse, but it's certainly more of a rational, reasonable explanation than attributing her actions to a brain disorder that has a long, observable onset and established patterns of behavior.
It's like trying to, as certain elements in this country repeatedly try, rationalize the actions of a trusted teacher, priest, etc. who's discovered to be a child molester by saying, "Oh, but he was a known homosexual..."
This whole story stinks to high heaven, as it has been portrayed thus far. I actually feel far worse for her, twenty-four hours later, now that she was mocked out across the land yesterday...."society" had virtually no facts and rushed to judgement, out of a need to belittle, ridicule, and dehumanize.
She could very well kill herself in the cold light of day. How are her children benefitted in any way, by first losing their only mother, and then inheriting a legacy of shame that they never did anything to provoke in the first place?
I'd laughed with the diaper bit when I first heard of it on the radio....now, after hearing the depth of automatic, baseless hatred so prevalent in today's American culture, I'm embarrassed that I responded that way. There is an innate NEED to see others....particularly certain others....punished to the most horrendous extent, when the facts of the matter are barely yet understood.
I don't get it....but it's horrifying to me to discover I'm just as much a part of this mentality for tolerating it in myself, as I would be if I actively participated in myself.
