BBC editor Jonathan Steer, who suffers from a bipolar disorder, is fired because he had paid unwanted attention to a male colleague called ‘Andrew’. Mr. Steer had sent Andrew messages through Facebook under pseudonyms such as ‘Lionheart’, trying to discuss their ‘sexual chemistry’. But because of the disorder Mr. Steer suffers from, he couldn’t remember sending those messages. Mr. Steer was confronted with the messages, but he claims he had never read them before. Andrew says he is shocked by the natures of the harassment. Jonathan Steer claims that having this bipolar disorder is a ‘very dark experience’, which even caused him losing his job.
I’ve never heard from this disease before, but I can imagine this is a very difficult disorder. I guess it’s very confronting to read what you have written before, without knowing that you did. It’s also difficult for judges to check whether he really cannot recall the things he did. I understand Andrew’s point of view that this can be very intimidating and I understand that he wanted somebody to know what was happening. These messages are indeed unwanted, so it’s understandable that Andrew is afraid that he might turn up at his home. It’s a difficult case, but it’s clear enough that Mr. Steer should leave Andrew alone.
I never heard of a disorder like this before either. If it is real it is very inconvenient for the man who suffers from it as well as for the person he intimidated. If the man fakes it is an easy way to avoid being arrested. In fact he is already punished because he lost his job.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI am convinced that you have heard about this disorder, the old term for bipolar disorder is manic depression. It is obvious that he was in manic phase when doing those things. A manic phase is sometimes accompanied with a psychosis and here that seems to be the case. When a patient is fine tuned to Lithium the problems are gone. But Lithium has to be taken very regularly and for some that poses a problem.
BeantwoordenVerwijderen