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Please Don't "Baby Talk" Consumers

Bipolars just hate it!  They work for years to earn a living. They occasionally attend activities in the local "psychosocial clubs" and, when they do, in one second they are reduced to the level of kindergarteners. How? With baby talk.

Actually, only a few of the staff members at the psychosocial clubs talk baby talk to bipolars. But it only takes one!  And they never talk baby talk to each other. Since they only baby-talk to non-staff members (outpatients, they call us), there must be a respect difference there somewhere.

I have divided baby-talking staff members (of psychosocial clubs) into three categories:

1. Those who sincerely want bipolars to know how deeply they care about them. So they try to talk nicely and in a kind way, which is fine.  But, and I don't think they know it, they're overdoing it. I believe this is by far the biggest category.

2.  Those who, deep inside, are afraid of bipolars, which is not fine. So they talk very sweetly because they are overcompensating. In lay terms, the baby talk is an unconscious cover-up.

3.  Those who are just so tired and burnt out that they cannot handle any bipolars needing them to repeat themselves even one more time. So they speak slowly and very distinctly, as you would to a developmentally disabled person.

4.  Those who were trained back in the dark ages of psychology to speak to bipolars as if they were children, and now they just cannot seem to break the habit.

Sometimes a staff member carefully tries to stop baby-talking, only to end up sounding gruff and rude. So be it!

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