Bipolar Fan Disorder: Why We All Have It!

We all have heard the word "Bipolar," but what does it mean?

According to one textbook source it is:

"A major affective disorder in which an individual alternates between states of deep depression and extreme elation. This is misleading in that bipolar disorder—also known as manic depression or manic-depressive illness—is much more complicated than just alternating between depression and elation."

Reading that, does it ring any bells? Sure we look at the definition and the textbook description with the definition. It is more complicated than just depression and elation, but they did hit something there.

The most frequent things we think about are the depression and elation issues. So with that said, aren't we, as sports' fans, Bipolar in a way? We would have to be, and the name for it is BPFD-Bipolar fan disorder.

Here are some examples:

Watch a person who is a fan of a particular team. Lets use the Alabama Crimson Tide.

They had a great season last year, one of the best in years. They had an undefeated regular season and went to the SEC Championship Game, then to the Sugar Bowl. Sad to say, they ended up losing both.

Take the fourth quarter in the SEC Championship against Florida. Alabama fans were confident in the team since they played well in the fourth all year and they were leading going in.

However, Alabama ended up giving the game away to Florida in the end as the Gators scored twice on them.

Alabama fans loved the team going in and they claimed they were the best in the nation. However, after the game, most thought Alabama was a terrible team who couldn't beat anyone.

So let me get this straight; they win and have a 12-0 regular season. But when they lose one game, they are the worst in the nation? And it was against Florida no less, the eventual National Champion last year.

The fact was that emotion gets into what you are doing. You have so much of yourself in that team. You have been a fan for so long, your father may have been and even your grandfather too.

Thus, when the team does well you feel great. Even during a game, you feel great when they score. But when they give up a score, you say, "Oh, well our defense sucks!" We can never beat them now, and it's the first quarter.

On the flip side, they do not suck when they give up a score; they sucked on just that one drive. The fact is, we are too heavily involved. It's as if we need everything perfect, where no team can score and the offense of your team does every drive.

That will never happen, but you want it to. When they don't your mad. When they do you feel great.

Cheer for your team, but don't give up on them when little mistakes happen.

The fact is that all fans in some way have BPFD—they are happy, then sad

I am not a psychology major—I am actually a TV Broadcasting major. So please correct me if I'm wrong here.

But do we as fans have BPFD in your mind? Because from what I have noticed, we all do in some way.