My mom used to always have an expression, “Take it with a grain of salt.” As an adult, I finally understood what she meant, and in dealing with bipolar disorder, I really knew what she meant.
When you’re living the daily ins and outs of bipolar, you really do have to take everything with a grain of salt, or everything will drive you crazy! You’d be in the hospital every other week if you took everything so seriously!
That’s what taking everything with a grain of salt means to me, anyway. To not take everything at face value, so serously, so black and white. It’s black and white (no gray at all) thinking that puts people with bipolar into episodes many times.
We need to be more flexible both in our thinking and in our lives. And, for many of us with bipolar, this is something we had to learn. I know that I did. I was not exactly a flexible person. Actually, if I was, I was too flexible, and ended up manic. So I had to learn to come out somewhere in between the two extremes.
It is healthy to be flexible. It is ok to be spontaneous. I know that is a scary thought for someone with bipolar disorder, because spontanaeity has so often been equated with a bipolar manic episode for us.
But a little spontanaeity is a good thing, as is flexibility. They add to the spice of life, and keep our lives from becoming boring – and boring, as you know, can take us the other way into depression (and a depressive episode).
It’s so hard, this fine-tuning of our disorder, isn’t it? It seems like we can never just let down our guard and relax. Ah, but we can.
Yes, we have to work at it like a job sometimes, but as long as we have done our job, just like a regular job comes with its relaxing weekend reward, so does our bipolar come with times of relaxing rewards.
If you have done what you were supposed to do in managing your disorder, you should be finding long periods of stability, where it’s ok to relax, be flexible, and yes, even be a bit spontaneous!
Try doing something fun for a change! If you truly are stable, it won’t trigger you into an episode, and you might even find yourself enjoying the ride!
Wishing you peace and stability,
Remember God loves you and so do I,
Michele
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