The thing that made me angrier than the thoughtlessness of the card was Joy's response via it's Twitter account mocking anyone with Bipolar who may see the card stating "they'll like it one minute and hate it the next?" (you can see screenshots of the exchange at the top of this post - credit to The Independent http://ind.pn/1Dsh1GM ).
Now I've been in the Brighton Joy store on a number of occasions and their cards are funny, but I don't recall ever seeing any of their other cards mocking other illnesses. I can't believe that in this day and age a company can get away with such callous attitudes to mental illness. There's being irrevant as they claim to be and then there's being downright insulting.
I live with Bipolar Disorder and can assure the top bods at Joy that it is no laughing matter. Whilst I try to take my condition with the best possible humour, often making jokes at my own expense, I wouldn't dream of joking about the condition generally or those suffering with it.
I'm trying to see how Joy finds a condition that can cripple someone's life and cause serious damage to those around them so funny. Perhaps I'm missing what's so hilarious about being slave to my mood condition and it's ups, downs and accosiated anxiety disorders?
Bipolar can cause the break-up of relationships, problems with employment (as I can vouch for at the moment), hospitalisation or worst of all suicide. Joy's seeming belief that Bipolar sufferers will "like something one minute and hate it the next" is grossly innacurate. Even with my fairly rapidly cycling moods I don't change my mind or personality from minute to minute and I certainly don't change my mind about what is right and wrong on the flip of a coin!
I hope that Joy and other retailers who think that it's acceptable to use mental illness as a platform for a cheap laugh will take note of the public response and realise that if the general public can move with the times then so should they.
Love Jen
XxxxX
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