Halsey tweeted her support for people with bipolar disorder: 'A manic episode isn't a joke'
- On Tuesday, Halsey posted a series of tweets voicing support for people with bipolar disorder, which she said she learned she had when she was "16 or 17."
- "I have dedicated my career to offering education and insight about bipolar disorder and I'm so disturbed by what I'm seeing," she wrote.
- She continued: "A manic episode isnt a joke. If you can't offer understanding or sympathy, offer your silence."
- Her tweets came after Kanye West — who has spoken before about having bipolar disorder — was filmed crying at a rally in South Carolina.
On Tuesday, Halsey, who has bipolar disorder, posted a series of tweets voicing her support for people with the mental-health condition, which is characterized by manic or hypomanic episodes, depressive episodes, and potentially some psychosis.
Halsey's first tweet said: "No jokes right now. I have dedicated my career to offering education and insight about bipolar disorder and I'm so disturbed by what I'm seeing. Personal opinions about someone aside, a manic episode isnt a joke. If you can't offer understanding or sympathy, offer your silence."
Halsey then wrote that mocking or insulting someone with mental illness could lead others to keep their suffering quiet: "Taking this opportunity to make offensive remarks and vilify people with mental illnesses is really not the way to go...this is the exact triggering shit that causes people to keep quiet about it."
She said "you can hate someone's actions or opinions without contributing to stigma that damages an entire community of sometimes vulnerable people all for a couple of laughs."
The singer went on to say that having a mental illness did not entirely shape a person's personality.
"If you wanna think someone is an asshole, go ahead," she wrote. "Lots of people with mental illnesses are great. Lots of them are assholes. Because they are people. With nuanced personalities. But making jokes specifically targeted towards bipolar hurts more than the 1 person ur angry with."
The singer signed off with: "Sincerely, Human Being with a Decade Long Bipolar Diagnosis."
While Halsey didn't name Kanye West — who said in a 2019 interview with Forbes that he had bipolar disorder — her comments seemed prompted by the reaction to his being filmed breaking down at a South Carolina rally and posting a series of explosive, later-deleted tweets about the Kardashians.
"'Crazy' is a word that's not gonna be used loosely in the future," West told Forbes of having bipolar disorder.
"Understand that this is actually a condition that people can end up in, be born into, driven into and go in and out. And there's a lot of people that have been called that 'C' word that have ended up on this cover."
Halsey has previously spoken about having bipolar disorder, saying she received the diagnosis when she was "16 or 17."
The singer, now 24, told Elle in 2015: "The thing about having bipolar disorder, for me, is that I'm really empathetic. I feel everything around me so much. I feel when I walk past a homeless person, and I feel when my friend breaks up with someone, or I feel when my mom and my dad get into a fight and my mom's f---in' crying over dishes in the sink."