There have been numerous reports that have stated that Tim Smith suffers from Bipolar Disorder. The club itself, various media outlets etc have all seemed to have stated this. As it has been said, the club itself would not have just released him from a contract without a medical certificate that outlines the conditions that he has. This is the same procedure that is in place if you want special consideration at university or in the workplace. They require all the medical information.
Now put yourself in the shoes of Tim Smith. People with mental disorders do not want to go public with this information unless they drastically need to. A few night outs whilst drinking with people that are a bad influence would not necessitate letting the world know that you have a mental condition. If you are that person, you want to keep that information to yourself and maybe a few close personal others. Letting the world know is not something anyone suffering a mental condition would hope to achieve.
It is not something you would be proud about because uneducated "Rednecks" like pointing the finger and saying that this person is just 'Putting it on', 'is weak', 'should just snap out of it', 'is vermon', 'has problems', 'is
mental' etc.
The redneck comments are actually justified in this case. Calling someone a "vermen" or assuming that someone playing the sport they love for a big money sum should counteract the effects of bipolar is simply ludicrous. Has anyone considered that he went to the UK straight after to get away from the media scrutinizing his condition and maybe because his bipolar may/may not have caused another rash decision? (Ie. wanting to quit playing the sport you love for big money sums).
No one here is Tim Smith's personal psychologist, but he did get checked into a clinic and that's enough for me. You don't just get booked in there without a referral. Sorry guys, but if Tim Smith and his employer says he has bipolar disorder, chances are he does. You would not wish that stigma to be placed upon yourself. If he wanted to quit without reason he just would have, plain and simple. Andrew Johns didn't go public until he had to for the very same reason. You don't want people knowing this.
The thing is, I get very pissed off at people who masquerade as sufferers of mental illness, so that their piss-poor behaviour and lack of responsibility can be excused. It actually gives real sufferers of mental illness a bad name.
Who are you to say who does or does not anyway? You can't say Tim Smith is one of these people, and since he has been diagnosed with it and is getting treated for it, probably with medications and therapy, I doubt that is something you'd just put on. For someone who has family members with mental illnesses you are fairly inconsiderate.
It's like me saying that your family members are putting on their bipolar disorder. It's not a judgment I am qualified to make, and you are not qualified to make that judgment on Tim Smith either, even if you knew him personally. A psychologist has and that my friend is as good as you are going to get.
What you should focus on is people with pseudo mental conditions that don't ever get evaluated and give themselves an internet diagnosis. Tim Smith didn't do this, he went through the real processes. That is as much of confirmation as you can get that a person suffers from the ailment.
