I’ve used prayer to help me deal with my bipolar illness. It helps. I’ve prayed nightly for strength and clarity. I’m a Catholic, and I try to go to mass regularly. I offer up my communion meal for my sanity. But once, I used superstition to help me get through the day.
I was at an airport which used to be a very problematic thing for me. Airports were a trigger of mine. They triggered my illness. I forget where I was going, but I was highly paranoid and delusional. I thought I was being followed and that I was in danger.
I happened to be wearing a silk scarf around my neck. Here’s where the superstition came in. I put the scarf on my head. My delusion was that the scarf was magic and it would protect me from harm.
I looked like someone out of the 1950's, my head wrapped up in a silk scarf, which I had pulled down over my eyes. My husband led me through the airport, and I followed obediently.
It was a little crazy.
My psychologist says she’s heard of ill people putting foil on their head to keep themselves from hearing voices or to protect themselves from being abducted by aliens.
Religion and superstition have gotten me through the day.
Hey, if it helps, what’s the harm?