I do not know if this is the experience of other people with bipolar disorder or clinical depression or other behavioral health diagnoses including addiction, but when I am in the midst of a high or a low, it feels like that state will never end. The mania is all consuming. The depression seems never ending. Yet invariably the high or the low does dissipate. Perhaps this is because I have found medication that is useful or perhaps I or my therapist have talked myself out of anxiety about this or that potential event occurring. In the past when I have had a low or a high that was not receptive to medications, I have felt like that high or that low would last forever. The mania is all consuming so that I am unable to think of anything else. The depression feels like it will go on interminably. The only silver lining in these episodes is the idea that “this too shall pass.” Invariably after medication (including trial and error with multiple meds) and/or therapy do take hold, I can see clearly that the mania was temporary as was the depression. So is it possible that those of us who are first-hand familiar with anxiety and/or depression are perhaps more familiar with the anxiety that surrounds us today perhaps because of our own mental health conditions? Do we go through each day with the knowledge and perhaps the mantra that “this too shall pass?” Can we be a reminder to each other through our words and our actions that whatever negative thoughts or feelings we are having, in time things will be looking up or at least be more manageable? Can we be a reminder to those unfamiliar with anxiety or depression that again “this too will pass?” Can we through it all be the face of resilience?
Thought for the day – resilience
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Mental Health is Health 
Thanks for sharing your experience here. You raise a good point that perhaps we can learn from our daily struggles our capacity to persevere. When we’re feeling anxious and impatient to be out of the house (among other things) we can remember our resilience as you say. I worry a lot, so this is not new for me. I remind myself to take action, not stay in thought. Those of us who struggle with mental illness grow stronger as we push through each episode or difficult day and we do so in the face of an illness we will and can live with. Here we have something that will run its course, we just have to follow the steps and protocol to make it through as best we can. Thanks for this sentiment, it’s a good one to think about.
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