The Bi-polar alcoholic

[BigDylan78]

Would just like to know if i have a leg to stand on. I am a nurse's aide and made the mistake of dating a nurse that I work with, we are on the same floor. Anyway (surprise, surprise), we recently broke up and this girl is going around my floor telling people that she broke up with me because I am a bipolar alcoholic who doesn't take his medication. God knows what else she is saying about me. Would like to know if there is anything at all that I can do to shut her up. It's really getting on my nerves and people are DEFINITELY looking at me differently as a result of this. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[moburkes]

Would just like to know if i have a leg to stand on. I am a nurse's aide and made the mistake of dating a nurse that I work with, we are on the same floor. Anyway (surprise, surprise), we recently broke up and this girl is going around my floor telling people that she broke up with me because I am a bipolar alcoholic who doesn't take his medication. God knows what else she is saying about me. Would like to know if there is anything at all that I can do to shut her up. It's really getting on my nerves and people are DEFINITELY looking at me differently as a result of this. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Tell her to stop.
Go to your manager, explain, have to your manager say something to her.
Go to HR, explain, have them say something to her.

 

[mb94]

Well, are you a bi-polar alcoholic who doesn't take medication?

 

[quincy]

Unless you can prove damages beyond "people looking at you differently", you would not be able to sue successfully for defamation. If comments made by this nurse start affecting your reputation to the point where you are unable to work effectively at your job, or if it affects you monetarily in your job, then you might have a case (assuming that what she is saying is false).

 

[Quaere]

this girl is going around my floor telling people that she broke up with me because I am a bipolar alcoholic who doesn't take his medication.

Whether or not she is defaming you is completely dependant on the exact context in which she is making these statements. You would have to be able to prove she is saying these things and you would have to be able to prove she is offering her statements as "FACTS".

 

[quincy]

Most importantly, these comments would have to be false. And you would have to prove that she believed them to be false.

 

[Quaere]

you would have to prove that she believed them to be false.

Defendant did not have to believe the statements were false. She merely had to be negligent in her duty to learn the truth before making such harmful statements.

 

[quincy]

"Defendant", huh? I take it you think this "Plaintiff" has a case, then?

 

[Quaere]

"Defendant", huh? I take it you think this "Plaintiff" has a case, then?

No, I just find it easier to think of the OP and his adversary as plaintiff/defendant. It's shorter than calling her "OP's former girlfriend".

A woman in MD recently won a $44,000 judgment against her former bf because after she dumped him he told everyone she was bi-polar. His whole rant about her was in writing though.

As an aside, I am sick to death of everyone being diagnosed as bi-polar. What a bunch of CRAP. There may be some people who really have such a condition, but it seems like EVERYONE is getting that diagnosis now. My own Dr. tried to tell me I'm TRI polar! The nerve!

 

[quincy]

Ha. I guess I am the polar opposite of that (whatever that is supposed to mean ).

Yes, having things in writing DOES seem to make a bit of a difference (a $44,000 difference, apparently). I keep telling people that if they get the urge to defame someone, just say it, don't print it. Slander is sooo much harder to prove.

 

[cbg]

What bothers me is not the diagnosis of bi-polarity, or whatever you'd call it, but the idea many people have that being bi-polar is a defense for anything they want to do.

 

[quincy]

I have some relatives whose mother was diagnosed eons ago as being bi-polar. There is, I believe, a genetic predisposition to it, some studies have shown. It is a devastating mental illness, the end result of which is often suicide.

I am especially appalled at how frequently people use being bi-polar as an excuse for their bad behavior, because the people I have known who have been legitimately diagnosed with it are extremely intelligent, and their manic periods are times of great acccomplishments, whereas their lows are periods of such a very low depression that they feel they can't go on....but their illness is always internalized, and not directed to actions against others. In fact, most people would not even recognize that someone has the illness if not told.