Two to seven percent of Americans have bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, this large amount of people are erased, ignored, stereotyped, and marginalized every day by pop culture and the media. People believe that bipolar people are "crazy" and are the same types people who shoot up churches and school.

Bipolar is shown in television shows in ways of the "insane ex-girlfriend" and other unflattering roles. People just assume that bipolar is a dirty word. Everyone has a hard enough time accepting depression and anxiety that bipolar gets swept under the rug.

Dear angsty teenage girls, stop pretending to be bipolar. Stop! If you are diagnosed, stop going around wearing labels of real mental illness like some type of ball gown to add some extra flair to your otherwise annoying personality. Just because you feel a little anxious sometimes or sad sometimes doesn't mean you are depressed, bipolar, or have anxiety. You add to the problem.

Stop erasing us. Stop putting us up as scapegoats when another school shooting happens. Or if you're going to do something so hurtful and stupid, at least try to make a change in healthcare and how we help those with mental illness.

We need more research into helping people with mental illness. In my experience, it's hit or miss with different medicines. I try one and it may help for a few months. I try another and it makes me gain a ton of weight and make me feel ten times worse than when I started it. We do need research but stop using mental illness as an excuse as to not make change where it is needed.

My personal experience with being bipolar was and is hard. Now that I'm older, I'm able to recognize when it is "just my emotions" and not anything rooted in logic. But I have moments where one homework assignment or nothing at all can send me into anxiety attacks.

Where one traffic issue can shoot me into an absolute rage. Angry enough to want to crash my car, but then logic kicks in. I'll be depressed and bed bound for weeks, and then hit weeks of mania where I feel amazing.

I feel invincible.

But with the highs, I know the lows are coming soon. I imagine my bipolar like a roller coaster; the high points making me feel light and fast while sometimes giving me anxiety because I know I'm afraid of heights.

The low moments are the antithesis, and they make me feel useless and unable to do anything at all. I'll sit in my room in the dark for hours doing nothing. I don't bathe very often. I don't brush my hair. I don't eat and have lost weight.

I find that we often ignore the ugly parts of mental illness because pop culture loves to romanticize it, but it's common for personal hygiene, homework, social lives, and eating to not be top priority for someone with mental illness. Stop erasing bipolar disorder. Stop ignoring it, stereotyping it, and humiliating those who deal with it everyday.