Halsey calls out trolls mocking bipolar disorder following Kanye West’s tweets

21 July 2020, 11:07

Kanye West opens up about his mental health

By Sam Prance

"Personal opinions about someone aside, a manic episode isn't a joke."

Halsey has criticised people joking about bipolar disorder online after Kanye West appeared to have a public manic episode.

Yesterday (Jul 20), Kanye West posted a series of alarming tweets that led people to believe he was having a manic episode. In the tweets, Kanye accused his wife, Kim Kardashian-West, of trying to lock him up with a doctor, among other things. He has since deleted the tweets, however, following his comments, many trolls started making fun of bipolar disorder online.

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Kanye previously opened up about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in an interview with David Letterman in 2019. The 43-year-old rapper spoke candidly about his experience. He said: "If you don’t take medication every day to keep you at a certain state, you have a potential to ramp up and it can take you to a point where you can even end up in the hospital."

Now, Halsey has taken to Twitter to call out anyone making light of mental illness and bipolar disorder specifically.

Today (Jul 21), Halsey tweeted: "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 isn't a joke. If you can’t offer understanding or sympathy, offer your silence."

She then added: "A lot of people you know probably have bipolar disorder and you aren’t aware of it. 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".

Halsey continued: "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."

Halsey went on to say: "If you wanna think someone is an asshole, go ahead. 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."

She ended her comments writing: "Sincerely, Human Being with a Decade Long Bipolar Diagnosis."