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Bipolar and ideas of how to help ourselves beyond medication
Mental Health | Last Active: Jan 31 12:55pm | Replies (147)Comment receiving replies
I was diagnosed late in life. I have been successful through life and accept the diagnosis. My mom coming from Italy was probably manic and my father was depressive. I'm a Vietnam Vet with a bachelor's degree. I have the experience of dealing with this disease for years. I have the best doctors, but the biggest mistake they make is labeling and medicating trying to heal person. My bipolar is part of my person. If you take it all away you taking my spiritual being away . We are all different for we live in this shell of body that eventually will pass on. Treat the spirit of yourself live, love, cry be happy and sad it's normal. God gave us emotion's and He will help us through our hardest times. I'm a survivor and let me smell the flowers. I have so much to contribute, but I.m stopping for now. Stay Healthy you have control.
Replies to "I was diagnosed late in life. I have been successful through life and accept the diagnosis...."
Mental health issues crept up on me in my early 50s and it all came to a head when I was 54. I was in the bottom of a dark hole of depression and attempting to end my life. I retired from the ministry when I was 55, and was approved for Social Security disability, and moved to the home we had bought, expecting to move ten years later than we did. I'm now 69, living on ten acres in the country, and after getting meds settled and therapy for 14 years, depression and the other stuff are under control.
I know that without the assurance of knowing that God would be faithful and never abandon me, I'm quite certain that I wouldn't be alive today. It took 5 years to get free from the suicidal ideation, and longer from depression, anxiety and PTSD.
My B.A. is in music, with a focus on piano. I attended a Bible College during the Vietnam era, so I had a 4d deferment and lottery #21. I'd be a whole different person today if I'd been drafted. Did you get your degree after your service? My music training was the foundation of much of my ministry, and I still play at home and at church.
It sounds like your bipolar is under control. A psychiatrist handed me several labels years ago, one of them being depressive bipolar, but I've not been aware of any feelings approaching mania. Labels can give direction for treatment, but we can't let them define us. I have depression, but I am not depression. Just having it is enough.
I'm a survivor now, as well. Reaching that awareness takes longer for some than for others. Being trapped in a web of a mental illness can surely slow that process down. Are there specific things that have been helpful to you in managing life? I look forward to hearing more from you.
Jim
@tjprather Thank you for your service. I have lived alongside mental illness for decades, usually in the form of depression. It is part of who I am, but I am so cautious of labels of any sort, and refuse to be defined by any malady. I really like your words!
Ginger
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It has been my experience that medication is the first avenue versus dealing with what causes this bipolar illness and to give us better skills in accepting and coping with it. Good luck to us all in conquering this illness and move forward in our own individual lives.😃