On bipolar…

August 3, 2013 by jaklumen 1 Comment

This sums up my experience right to a T. I have bipolar mood disorder, but it is not me. Just like chronic pain is not me. I have a “slow and complex” thought process, too, but it is not me either. They are factors, filters. And I like how this author emphasizes owning his behavior.
Pain is more a factor for me right now, but… doubly important! And yet so hard sometimes. My Dr. Banner/Jekyll still has to clean up what my Mr. “The Hulk” Hyde smashed.

I am 39 today. I wish I was this sanguine when I was 36. But I remind myself I am a work in progress, and others are a work in progress, too (even when I want to smack them).

cogitabunda

I posted this on http://forfreepsychology.wordpress.com/  Like it here, like it there.  🙂

**************

I am not Bipolar.  I have Bipolar.  It is not me, and I live with it, but I do not allow it to have me.

I know, this is all quibbling with language, but when we use language to think, to define ourselves and who we are, our words and their meanings become vital.  All to often, people are classified, or classify themselves as “Bipolar”, as if it were a nationality, culture, heritage or something that defines who we are.

I refuse.

Cancer patients don’t call themselves,”Cancerous”, although Cancer decides much of what they do and how they live.  They have Cancer.  Some lie down and allow their lives to go the way they go.  Some fight tooth and nail.  Some ignore it completely, living with it to the end.  There may be an exception somewhere to…

View original post 1,380 more words