The many mantra's of BiPolar Disorder

I came across the below link when you get to it, that offers 20 messages for the BiPolar sufferer, the problem I have with this though is that when you are navigating BPD and Working you have to bring something to the party, you have to have a degree of performance at work.    What I'm trying to say is that the many mantra's out there are often, rightly, attending to self BUT the reality of work is that you can't switch off for hours at a time, you do have to learn, with help, how to navigate your condition and your work environment.

It doesn't mean that the mantra's are not of value, they just seem a little me me me sometimes and as mental health sufferers we still have to work,live with everyone else on a day to day basis.

Have a look
Reflect
See what I mean ........ some are more engaged with the World than others .........

http://themighty.com/2016/03/20-messages-for-anyone-who-feels-restricted-by-a-bipolar-disorder-diagnosis1/

Of value but very self-centric, the world turns still while we navigate our conditions as well.

Happy Easter all, may we all 'rise' with the road .............

Sunday Evening Syndrome & BPD

BiPolar is an interesting condition to have.  I had 'Sunday Evening Syndrome' this last Sunday as I had been on holiday for a week and a half and a lot of the BPD symptoms were mulling around in various ways.

My head was switching from can't keep up with it all to can do it all, from can't possibly fail to irritation that I didn't think I would be able to hit the ground running after a week and a half wrapped up in my family and far from work ( well apart from when my anxiety meant I logged into my work eMail account ).
Depression teetered, doubting my ability to do anything well, my mind feeling like it was burning out and that I was virtually useless.  Folks say 'it will pass' and they are right BUT in the moment this and the anxiety and so unnerving.  I thought I had built up some resilience recently as I had a good 4 weeks full time before my holiday and things had gone okay.

Then, off the back of some great family times I had a bounce into Mania, fast ideas coming too fast, too many ideas.  In stead of clarity there is an overwhleming confusion but a belief that I'm on the curve, I think my humour is brilliant BUT it fails to amuse others.  Everything ends up against the grain. 
It seems that, basically, my condition seems to have exacerbated my 'Sunday Evening Syndrome', eventually I get to grips with it all to some degree, I find some distraction, I create time for mindfulness and breathing ( pulling myself away from Mania ). 
Eventually I get to sleep later that night, a short nights sleep and I'm at work Monday morning, tired as a Dog BUT I'm at work, I haven;t succumbed to despair and mania, I haven't beaten my condition BUT I have navigated it.  I'm tired all day Monday but I acheive a few small things and a sense of stability is there by the end of the day.

The problem is that this condition has exhausted me and that's ridiculous and perhaps hard to run by others as I don't want to live off excuses or be a passenger at work and so I continue to try and navigate my condition through my tiredness and I'm glad that my mood swings have settled.
Just wanted to try and get across teh effort that the condition can some times require to navigate it.
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Do No Evil .............

Its just recently been brought to my attention that Sunday April 10^th is Good Deeds Day 2016.  This is an initiative that has taken off in the last 10 years from quite a humble start.  One of the things that Happify.Com has brought out of this upcoming Day is that the very process of doing a good deed is in theory good for your mental health.  So here we have altruistic behaviour that you could engage with that will actually do you good even though your initial beginnings might just be that you want to do the world a favour.

Google started with it’s mantra many years ago of ‘Do No Evil’ and now with it’s pervasive search engine and it’s lack of tax paying in countries where it makes a profit, you could say that the holding back of tax payments might be construed as ‘not doing good’ or making their contribution to what might be used for social good in various countries.

Anyway that’s a bit of a tangent really, regards Google.  Just a bugbear I have, a little like the fact that the ‘X Factor’ isn’t  really a TV show looking for someone with the ‘X Factor’  as they tend to find the same types of singers year on year, just another one of them………….

Anyway, as  I said, that’s all tangential.  ‘Doing Good’ allegedly decreases Stress.  There have been studies that have looked at the link between volunteering for example and hypertension, it was found in a 2013 study that giving back, doing good, volunteering etc etc can have a significant positive affect on blood pressure.  There are other studies that align with the position that giving money and time away can also have the same affect, basically having a generous demeanour will benefit you and also you may well get that ‘Helpers high’ where the brain releases endorphins, feel good chemicals in your brain. 

Now this is where it gets tricky as I want to share my own sense of ‘Doing Good’ but I don’t want folks to think I’m blowing my own trumpet, what I do want to do though is give a sense that you can engage with this as I have tried to with a degree of organisation.  I have a 6.66 fund which I use for donations to Just Giving etc causes so that I can support people who ask me without having to think how much to donate as I have a rate that I set and that’s what I use, I like to be able to do this giving, it does feel good that you laready know you’ve allowed for that in your monthly budgeting. Someone asks me and if it’s something I like the idea of, I donate £6.66.  I then try and be thankful myself, sounds a bit twee I agree by ‘Paying it Forward’ as I know people have done stuff for me, so I look each week for something that I can just do when the opportunity arises to help someone out without there being any payback for me, I don’t look for things that would over reach me like say, painting the whole of someones house BUT something like last week where I got someones shopping for them because they couldn’t get out to do it.  I guess I’m just saying that it’s not normally too much of an ‘ask’ to deliver on ‘Good Deeds’ as you can limit them to what you, as a person can manage.  With mental health challenges you would often have to do that but there is a benfit to engaging with this attitude.

As ever, I hope this make some degree of sense.

Tony

Good Deed Day ~~ http://gdd.goodnet.org/about

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