I appreciate your candour. My experience has been that with care it is possible to maintain an even keel and to avoid episodes for the most part. Since my diagnosis and a slow,painful climb out of a post-psychotic depression, I have, in fact, come to feel pretty much fine. I allow myself to feel mild elation, but am careful enough to avoid hypomania and depression.
I write, make visual art, and even moved abroad a mere two years after having hit rock bottom.
Initially, I found the books on bipolar disorder extremely disheartening, because there really was a focus on worst-case scenarios, as you say. Where are the examples of people like me in the literature, people who take their meds carefully, and function just like everybody else?
On the other hand, I have found that my openness on the subject of bipolarity has been met with a fair degree of support, and I do believe that the stigma of having a diagnosis is decreasing over time. After all, well-managed bipolarity needn´t be necessarily more troublesome than a bout of depression, and most people suffer at least somewhat from anxiety or depression at some point in their lives, even if they haven´t required a diagnosis.
It may be that bipolarity is a very broad symptom of living in a world with too much stress and rather lopsided values. Yes, bipolarity is chemical, but, as biological beings, shouldn´t we respond to factors like honking horns, pollution, violence, indifference, cruelty, etc. with sensitivity? Part of the success of mentally healthy people is that they can shut these things out. But can we afford to shut out these things? I suspect further that it is an actual sensitivity to one´s surroundings, the spectrum of positive and negative elements of one´s environment, that leads to strong emotional responses, which, of course can be hard to bring into balance. It can be too much for the nerves to let too much perceptual chaos into one´s mind, but I strongly believe that the problem of bipolarity is as much metaphysical as physical, that is, by bringing questions and thoughts on chaos and order into alignment the chemistry of the brain may follow suit.
Meds help, but the greatest medicine is the substance of the thoughts we choose to create, deny, etc. A sentence like this is vain and insufferable when a person is in the middle of distorted thinking. I know this from first-hand experience. On the other hand, tangled thinking can become clearer, and more healthy and positive over time.
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I appreciate your candour. My experience has been that with care it is possible to maintain an even keel and to avoid episodes for the most part. Since my diagnosis and a slow,painful climb out of a post-psychotic depression, I have, in fact, come to feel pretty much fine. I allow myself to feel mild elation, but am careful enough to avoid hypomania and depression.
I write, make visual art, and even moved abroad a mere two years after having hit rock bottom.
Initially, I found the books on bipolar disorder extremely disheartening, because there really was a focus on worst-case scenarios, as you say. Where are the examples of people like me in the literature, people who take their meds carefully, and function just like everybody else?
On the other hand, I have found that my openness on the subject of bipolarity has been met with a fair degree of support, and I do believe that the stigma of having a diagnosis is decreasing over time. After all, well-managed bipolarity needn´t be necessarily more troublesome than a bout of depression, and most people suffer at least somewhat from anxiety or depression at some point in their lives, even if they haven´t required a diagnosis.
It may be that bipolarity is a very broad symptom of living in a world with too much stress and rather lopsided values. Yes, bipolarity is chemical, but, as biological beings, shouldn´t we respond to factors like honking horns, pollution, violence, indifference, cruelty, etc. with sensitivity? Part of the success of mentally healthy people is that they can shut these things out. But can we afford to shut out these things? I suspect further that it is an actual sensitivity to one´s surroundings, the spectrum of positive and negative elements of one´s environment, that leads to strong emotional responses, which, of course can be hard to bring into balance. It can be too much for the nerves to let too much perceptual chaos into one´s mind, but I strongly believe that the problem of bipolarity is as much metaphysical as physical, that is, by bringing questions and thoughts on chaos and order into alignment the chemistry of the brain may follow suit.
Meds help, but the greatest medicine is the substance of the thoughts we choose to create, deny, etc. A sentence like this is vain and insufferable when a person is in the middle of distorted thinking. I know this from first-hand experience. On the other hand, tangled thinking can become clearer, and more healthy and positive over time.
May 10, 2009 - 7:25pmThis Comment
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