A comedian named Sarom delivers a stand-up comedy set about his experience being diagnosed with Bipolar Type II at age 26, using humor to address stigma around mental illness in the Black community, the trial-and-error nature of psychiatric medication, and the value of therapy.
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Transcript
[00:50:21] hey
[00:50:23] all right thank y’all uh they brought me up uh i’m actually a comedian
[00:50:33] uh so they brought me up here to tell a few jokes about mental health awareness
[00:50:37] and thank y’all for having me so y’all give it up for them putting on this so speak your truth
[00:50:42] uh y’all give it up for them for putting this on for somewhere for us to have
[00:50:45] you know just a place to talk all right so let me get to it
[00:50:48] so
[00:50:53] five minutes first of all thank you for inviting me to annapolis uh this is far as hell um
[00:51:00] i’m glad i had my passport on me when i got here that they would have turned me around at the
[00:51:05] border and made me go home uh what i want to talk about my mental health awareness uh i’m actually
[00:51:09] bipolar type two and uh i know a lot of y’all look at me like i didn’t know black people could
[00:51:15] be bipolar um we usually don’t have health insurance so we don’t hear about the shit
[00:51:20] I didn’t realize I was bipolar for the long I didn’t realize I was bipolar until I was 26
[00:51:26] I thought I was just a real ass nigga who didn’t put up with no bullshit
[00:51:30] come to find out um I’m a pleasant motherfucker I just have
[00:51:37] a penchant for slapping people with a chemical imbalance and that’s all it was
[00:51:41] but I went ahead and I got into therapy and I got on medication um I’m still trying to I
[00:51:49] talk about uh mental health on stage because I’m trying to uh trying to take the shame out of it
[00:51:55] I don’t know if any of y’all have dealt with it you you didn’t you didn’t want to really want to
[00:51:58] tell anybody at first because people act funny when you tell when you tell the normies that you
[00:52:03] got something they uh they act real funny towards you like I was like I’m bipolar and they go they
[00:52:08] say stupid shit like oh I’m sorry don’t bite me you’re like who the hell told you biting people
[00:52:13] was a symptom of being bipolar like now I want to bite you because you said that stupid shit
[00:52:19] um for those who don’t know being bipolar the probably the most famous person uh right now
[00:52:26] who’s bipolar and is not taking his medication is Kanye
[00:52:30] Kanye is what is what you call unlimited funds and no medication that’s uh that’s what happens
[00:52:38] when you do that shit you you put on the MAGA hat and take your drawers off and you just start
[00:52:42] walking around saying stupid shit so uh I personally take my medication a lot of y’all
[00:52:48] might be on medication but I don’t take my medication I don’t take my medication I don’t
[00:52:49] take my medication a lot of people don’t that they don’t don’t realize that this shit is trial and
[00:52:53] error when they give you your medication like you don’t get like one magic pill and it fixes you
[00:52:58] that day one no they give you some shit and the doctor says this shit right here well the doctor
[00:53:02] don’t say this shit right here if your doctor says this shit right here you should probably leave
[00:53:08] but the doctor says this might make you feel funny and I looked him in the face and I said
[00:53:13] uh I’m a comedian I know what funny is and I’m not sure if your smart ass knows what funny is at all
[00:53:19] because
[00:53:19] he gave me my first set of meds and I called him back and the very next day I called him from work
[00:53:24] I was like you got to take me off the medication he’s like what’s wrong I was like I just took a
[00:53:28] shit he’s like well it might mess with your stomach at first as you get used to it I said
[00:53:31] no you don’t understand I just shit on my desk at work I’m on the wrong medication like uh I am on
[00:53:39] the wrong pills pills are funny though pills uh it’s uh when you when you take your medication
[00:53:47] uh you wake up some days like this is boring and I’m like oh my god I’m on the wrong medication
[00:53:49] and people go that’s normal like oh really I didn’t realize that being normal was boring but
[00:53:57] it’s better than the other shit because uh my wife she can tell when I haven’t taken my medication
[00:54:02] because sometimes she’ll come home and um I have on the spider-man mask and nothing else
[00:54:09] and she go uh why uh did you take your pills today and I go why do you ask
[00:54:15] you say because you’re naked with a spider-man mask on and I go
[00:54:19] I got a minute left uh therapy is uh important uh I think that everybody who gets a chance to if
[00:54:31] you find free therapy or low-cost therapy get into it I love getting into therapy and saying
[00:54:35] shit to make my um therapist scribble real fast that’s when I know I said something
[00:54:40] like when I’m talking they go
[00:54:44] all right thank y’all for having me
[00:54:49] let me speak y’all truth it’s been my time
[00:54:51] yeah that was hilarious hey way to start the show give it up here one more time y’all