Kanye West & Bi Polar – My Views

Those who know me well would know that I rarely watch the news. I switched the news off completely since April 20, as we hear the same continuous news on Covid 19. If I need to know anything important, I can find out through work or family and friends as they would all be talking about it. Of course I have the BBC app on my mobile which notifies me of any breaking news, so I get the headlines each day too.

I have only recently opened up about my bi polar diagnosis, having been diagnosed 4 years ago. It is through this lockdown period, I was able to stop doing and actually have time to sit still, reflect, understand and accept this. By doing this, I created this website which only has blog posts at the moment.

Recently a family member asked me my views on Kayne West being diagnosed as Bi Polar now that they are aware of me having it and it was a headline in the news recently of him being diagnosed with Bi Polar and running for Presidency. I was surprised to hear of Kayne’s diagnosis, but was not completely shocked by the news.

I have been lucky enough to see Kayne West twice, both times for free too, and the last time I saw him, I was squashed at the front of the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival a few years back. I have always liked his songs and one thing I became aware of was the choice of his song titles/lyrics. In the earlier days, we saw titles such as “Stronger”, “Power”, and then later a whole album around the topic of God. One of the key symptoms of Bi Polar is that one can act like they are invincible to the world, acting “God like.” Through these songs, it could come across as if he is showing he is invincible to the world, like he is “God like”. Also, Kayne wanting to run for presidency could be another sign of him wanting power and to take over the World.

Even though we heard about this in the news in July 20, Kayne West has been open about bi polar over the last couple of years. He was hospitalised for a period in relation to stress in 2016 and 2018 he became public about it through his music. Kayne West has an album cover titled “I hate being Bi Polar it’s awesome”. In this album, one song titled “Yikes” contains lyrics such as “bipolar sh*t” his “superpower” and says it “ain’t no disability”. I actually agree with these phrases to some extent, and I can explain why.

Again, through this album, Kayne West is showing classic symptoms of acting like he is better than others.

Being bi polar, I believe our brain is wired in such a way that it does work rapidly, and we can get certain things done, which may take others longer to do, only because our brain is naturally wired to work in such a way. I can’t explain it, except through some examples from my life. One example which I have previously blogged about; how did I at University party almost every single night throughout my 3 year degree, attended dance society classes, performed at the dance shows every year, obtained a First Class Honours degree and spoke to almost every single person at my University in my year group?!? And I did it again later. I studied for two different accounting qualifications (CIPFA and ACCA) and passed them all first time whilst working full time, changed jobs multiple times as I was contracting, exercised regularly 3 to 4 times a week, and even managed to travel several times during one of the years too. I socialised regularly several times a week too and only took a break from socialising 2 weeks before my exams. I also recall attending a wedding 2 days before taking 2 exams in a day too.

I am not saying I have superpowers, but I know that at times I have so much energy inside of myself to carry on and do things, when others say they are tired, or don’t feel like doing it. This goes back to myself referencing bi polar to mean having natural high energy.

I don’t believe Bi Polar to be an illness or disability as such. I believe, once it is diagnosed that one has Bi polar, one can be helped if the symptoms can be managed. Initially, symptoms can be managed through medication. At this stage, it is about getting the patient to calm down or reach a normal state, which they are unable to do by themselves and may not be aware that they need to calm down especially when they are in a manic state or depression. Once calmer at a more normal state, one can start using more natural techniques such as meditation, which slows the brain down, and talking therapy to understand oneself better and view matters from different angles than one may be aware of. Such natural techniques used on a regular basis, can help to retrain your brain to naturally slow down, or at least be aware of what you are doing, so more focused decisions can be made in a better state of mind than from a state of manic or depression.

With regard to Kayne West, if he is able to manage his symptoms with or without medication and cause no harm to society, then I would see no reason why he couldn’t go for Presidency. It is only where his behaviour is seen to be a danger to society, we would need to worry.