My father suffers from bipolar disorder. He says there’s this thing called hypomania that is a common trait for bipolar disorder.
I reached out to my dad because I thought it was interesting that the cop asked Brian “are you always this hyper?” He definitely seems to be a bit bipolar, which would explain a lot to me. Maybe he’s aware of it, maybe he’s undiagnosed, I don’t know.
I’m not trying to diagnose him, and I obviously don’t think being bipolar makes you a bad person. But when left untreated and when you cram yourself into a van with someone else, all of these things come out eventually. Take it from me, I’m currently on month 7 of living in a van with my partner.
I don’t like to diagnose people off limited information. All I’ll say is that episodes of mania within bipolar disorder can be triggered by travel and loss of routine. That is all.
Her friend rose mentioned in her interview that GP told her BL had “episodes” of not sleeping and hearing voices.
IMPORTANT: Bipolar disorder or mania *DO NOT CAUSE MURDER*
I work in psychiatric research.
If it turns out he was suffering from mania or some sort of psychosis, it would be very harmful to blame his behavior on that. It can cause breaks from reality but does NOT CAUSE VIOLENCE. It could create problems in close quarters in a relationship living in a van. In fact, mentally ill people are less likely to be violent than mentally healthy people. They’re more likely to be unable to operate in normal society, but are not inherently more violent. But that is a myth we need to be sure to be careful to avoid. It can help explain behavior but not blame behavior on it.
Also be careful of “diagnosing” people off limited information. That should be left up to doctors, who evaluate him in person, or experts at a trial.
