More than likely, any of us with manic depression is going to have another episode sooner or later. A ton of time and energy is spent on figuring out how to deal with our bipolar episodes. Not so much on afterwards.
Often we’re left with a mess one way or another after a manic or depressive episode. It might be a financial mess or a damaged friendship. We might feel guilty or sad about it. It’s really easy to kick ourselves for doing “stupid” things while we were in an episode.
But as the cat knows, while it’s cool to take a bit to recover our dignity, it’s not too cool to dwell on the past.
Give yourself a break. Take some time to get your balance back. Then go do what you need to in order to repair any problems created during your episode. But don’t beat yourself up over it. Get up an go on without dwelling on the past as much as you can.
Cartoon from All I Need To Know I Learned from My Cat (And Then Some) by Suzy Becker
Babbled by Immi.
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I’ve just gotten through another episode, one severe enough to end me up in the hospital. I find it the hardest to get out of the past, and not beat myself up. Hospitalization is so profound a thing, that it’s hard to move forward from it, don’t you think?
NurseExec, I’m glad you’re back home now! I agree it’s very profound and hard to move forward from hospitalization. I remind myself that it was the bipolar illness that was severe enough to need hospitalization, and I just had to go along for the ride. That puts it in a perspective I find easier to work with. Please be kind to yourself.
Good advice.
It’s quite hard not to ruminate over what you’ve done, which isn’t advisable while in the post episode depression. So make sure you’ve got a pile of distraction waiting for you.