A Closer Look At Kanye West’s Bipolar Disorder

Kanye West is very open that he struggles with bipolar disorder, which many people believe is just mood fluctuations. Bipolar disorder includes types one and two, which both have overlapping symptoms. Bipolar one is mainly based around extreme highs or mania, while bipolar two, includes extreme depressive episodes and hypomania, which is a lesser form of mania. Diagnosing bipolar requires defined periods of depression and mania that last a certain amount of days.

Society wants people to be more open about their struggles with mental illnesses as long as they aren’t too severe. It has only truly been normalized for people to talk about the loss of loved ones, career instability, or relationship problems. Even though this is an important cultural shift, we haven’t begun to discuss how to support those dealing with hallucinations, experiencing different personality states, or psychosis. People are so quick to advocate for mental health until it’s someone who struggles with it in a different way than the publics’ stereotypical view. I believe that Kanye is a great example of this. Anytime Kanye says something that is undoubtedly his untreated mental illness getting in the way, he is laughed at or shamed. Of course, his untreated bipolar is not an excuse, and he should still be responsible for what he says, but it does help explain his actions. From an average person’s view, it’s hard to tell where Kanye’s ego ends and mania begins. Such extreme mania like Kanye’s, makes him feel invincible, hence him running for president. 

We need to establish some events before we can deconstruct everything. Let’s start with the most infamous night in 2009, the VMA’s. The famous Ye quote, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” Now, there’s not too much wrong with this, I mean I have to agree with him, but it left a lot of people questioning his sanity because he ran onto the stage and interrupted Taylor just to say that. Soon after this event, Kanye left for Hawaii where he spent 5 days creating “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. People who were around him as he produced this album said they never saw him sleep in a bed, he would only sleep in ninety-minute intervals. What reporters and commentators fail to realize is that Kanye’s work ethic is a reflection of his neurodiversity. This was a very clear manic episode as he wasn’t sleeping, extremely energetic, and had a heightened sense of creativity, etc. The sole reason Kanye doesn’t take medication is that he believes it makes him less creative, thus him calling his bipolar a superpower.

While talking about Kanye and his bipolar, I think it’s only necessary to talk about how he ran for president. On July 5th, 2020, Kanye tweeted out, “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision, and building our future. I am running for president of the United States 🇺🇸! #2020VISION.” I believe Kanye is displaying clear manic symptoms just based on everything he said during this entire campaign. He is doing things that can have disastrous consequences, is making decisions that are out of character or that others would see as being risky/harmful, and has a heightened feeling of self-worth and importance. Kim has spoken out and said that Kanye running for president was the last straw in their marriage. Bipolar can also often lead to serious strains in relationships. While running for president, Kanye was skeptical about covid-19 and said, “...the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside us.” On July 19, 2020, Kanye held his first campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina. During this campaign, Kanye broke down into tears and claimed his brain was too big for his skull. He also made a very offensive remark about Harriet Tubman, claiming that “(she) never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people.” Again, just because he has an untreated mental illness doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be held responsible for his remarks. Kanye himself has even recognized that during his manic states, he becomes delusional and everything becomes a conspiracy. 

The main point I wanted to bring across by using Kanye as an example, was that society as a whole needs to understand the harsh reality of more extreme mental illnesses before laughing at someone so obviously struggling with them. So many of the remarks people make about Kanye end up being ableist, even if it’s unintentional, it is still deeply insulting to other people who struggle with bipolar. Kanye, constantly becoming a meme because what he says has been so normalized that people don’t realize the actual harm jokes like that can cause. People who continue to make these ableist statements are reducing people to their disabilities.