Louis Armstrong and many others have sung the words, “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.”
I believe in those words … I do. Smiles are contagious!
But I have not been able to smile for around 12 years now. A gift from my experience with Bell’s Palsy. Continue reading
As you likely know if you read my posts here regularly, I am no longer taking any real mood-stabilizers for my bipolar disorder. It isn’t an anti-medication stance, it’s actually just a place I ultimately came to through very little choice of my own (you can read a bit more about it here).
Now, being Bipolar I with psychotic features, unmedicated is a pretty daunting place to be, and I’m learning all the angles I need to cover. Some I already knew and had accounted for: exercise, sleep, stress, and situations I knew were very high on the potential trigger list. Others I knew, but didn’t really think about planning for, because they just didn’t come to mind when thinking of the day-to-day and what I needed to be vigilant about. Continue reading
In my mind, I am normal. This is because I live with me twenty-four seven (OK, not always twenty-four seven because some of those hours I am asleep).
I have BPD. In the past, I never realised that I feel emotions more easily, more deeply, and for longer than others do. I thought the intensity of my emotions was normal. Turns out, it’s not. I read somewhere that in non-BPD people an emotion typically fires for 12 seconds. In BPD’ers it can last up to 20 percent longer. BPD’ers emotions also repeatedly re-fire, or re-live, or recur, however you want to say it, so emotional reactions occur for even longer. I do. I go over and over and over the emotions, pinging from one to another like a steel ball in a pinball machine. Continue reading
… also known as the Golden Rule. I’m sure it is nothing new to you. It is a very old rule. Throughout history, philosophers, psychologists, religions and societies have worded the rule in many different ways. But the basic and very simple truth behind it remains unchanged when it comes to living in peace and equality with one another. Continue reading
Birthdays are often triggering affairs for me, and, from what I’ve read on others’ blogs, I’m not alone.
My life is littered with many unfortunate birthdays. When I was a child, I had the obligatory sorts of parties. There were play places. A skating rink, even though I could barely skate (and I can’t skate now), so I hugged the wall.
These were awkward affairs. None of the people there were really my friends–just classmates. Continue reading
Here I am, making breakfast, kitties around me, listening to the chirping of the birds and feeling content.
As I get the sliced bread out the bag to put it in the toaster, I think that I should put a slice on the balcony for the birds like I used to do in Colombia. I think of the last place I lived in my home town All the birds that came to feed and take a bath in the early morning and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
I see the birds with the eyes of my mind, their beautiful colours, their lovely chirping and that makes me smile. Continue reading
I’ve been wondering recently (as always) why I am the way I am.
I’ve been trying to come up with an explanation.
It feels like I can’t help these ways. I think the way I think because of all that I am, and all that has happened. I feel like I use it as an excuse, but am I allowed to feel that way? Continue reading
This topic stems from an idea that I had in relation to the post Be Your Own Advocate.
It’s something I occasionally allude to on my personal blog and in my comments on others’ blogs. Over the last two and a half years (has it really only been that long?), I’ve learned a lot about how to compose myself when discussing matters with other mental health professionals.
First, let’s go over my successive period of interactions with mental health professionals. Continue reading
A Canvas Of The Minds 