Kanye West is suffering from Bipolar Disorder: The disease which may make you think "everyone wants to kill you"

Reality TV star and makeup mogul Kim Kardashian West took to Instagram on Wednesday to share that his husband and rapper Kanye West has been battling Bipolar disorder and asked for compassion and empathy from the media and public. She wrote, “As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand. I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health. But today, I feel like I should comment on it because of the stigma and misconceptions about mental health.”

Kim’s message addressing her husband mental health condition have come after Kanye posted a series of bizarre Tweets (now deleted) where he talked about wanting to divorce his wife. He also Tweeted about how Kim was trying to lock him up on the basis of his medical condition, without elaborating any further. He also deleted those Tweets later on.

Kanye West has always been known for his strong opinions, outspoken personality and statements that made headlines. The rapper was also in news recently after he declared that he was running for US presidency in 2020. The announcement by the 43-year old African-American musician on July 4 met with equal amounts of disbelief and amusement.

Bipolar disorder is a serious psychiatric condition (also known as manic depression) which causes extreme mood shifts in a person, ranging from mania to depressive episodes. Kanye's recent erratic behaviour seems to be in line with the diagnosis of bipolar which is characterized by happy, high periods called mania, where a person makes reckless decisions and also suffers from paranoid delusions.

The incredibly low “depressive phase”, on the other hand, can lead to complete loss of ability to feel happiness and may cause suicidal ideation. It should be noted that not everyone experiences both the phases of bipolar disorder equally, some may experience more depressive episodes than the manic side of the poll and vice versa.

This is precisely why the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is extremely hard and it is often misdiagnosed as clinical depression at first. Patients are given cognitive behavioural therapy, alternative treatment methods and mood-stabilizing medicines to control the symptoms of the disease.

Notably, the rapper had opened up about his struggles with his mental health on David Letterman’s show, where he talked about how he feels that “he has a sprained brain.”

“It's like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you're not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse.”

He also noted how it feels like “everyone wants to kill you.” “You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things. You pretty much don’t trust anyone.”

Talking about Kanye's battle with bipolar disorder, Kim had written, “I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bipolar disorder.”