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“Bipolar” is simply a grouping of certain symptoms with a specific course…It's cause. Taking painkillers and drinking will not make you bipolar. But mentally ill people will try to self-medicate.
“According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) and the American Psychological Association, bipolar spectrum disorders, formerly called manic-depressive illness, represents a group of disorders that cause extreme fluctuation in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function, in which symptoms of mania and depression alternate.”
Alcohol and opiates can most certainly cause these types of symptoms, and you can’t actually diagnose a person with “bipolar” of any kind if they’re using or have used in the recent past (it’s actually in the DSM that drug use MUST be ruled out first).
Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop medical doctors from diagnosing bipolar conditions so that they can then medicate with mood stabilizers (ie medical straight jacket).