Remain positive and strong, realizing that you are valuable. Surround yourself with self love and positive vibes.

I first experienced depression in early teens. By my early 20’s I ended up in a psych hospital and by my late 20’s I ended up twice in the hospital because of talks of suicide.

I believe the love and prayers of family and friends helped me in my battle with depression,and general anxiety disorder. Plus moments of psychosis.

Feeding myself with positive quotes were and still are helpful. Learning how to forgive myself and others was also needed. We are all connected and love and understanding is what is needed for all who struggle with mental illness and for all.

Hello,

Greetings 🌞 Having struggled for 40 years with what I now know as bipolar depression…..I have learned a thing or two. As torturous as it has been,( a long rocky, mountain/valley path) it has also been positive. We have the capacity for great love and compassion for our fellow brothers and sisters that others may not. When we experience soul deep pain, it allows us to live more deliberately and purposefully. Life can be as joyful as we choose despite the ball and chain of mental illness! We are still precious and struggling people with a great deal to offer one another and others. No experience is wasted if we learn to grow and give back to and support others. We DO have a purpose. Nurture and be kind to oneself……timing is crucial and be patient. Hang in there….please. Have a sense of humor…. We are all broken, fragile souls in need of love. We just feel it more.

Peace be yours,
Anne

Although i love to read positive posts and inspirational quotes…living with BP and having been on the worst journey over the last 4 months…it is so disheartening to hear people just want us to just get over it or feel happy…it doesn’t work that way for us…to know there are so many like us out there gives me hope…i just hate the stigma and being a teacher having to be quiet about it.

As I walk through the hallway of my past and peek through the windows of my memories I see a myriad of different experiences, emotions, and lessons learned. I see love given, taken away, taken for granted, and given back because sometimes it is unbreakable. I see fear learned and fearless gained. I see weaknesses exploited but I also see strength built. I see magic believed in, forgotten, and once again embraced. I see change sometimes at a gradual and slow pace and sometimes all at once in a traumatic explosion. I see bottled up anger rising up and cascading over like a volcano. I see tears freezing the anger as they washed my soul clean. I see mistakes, struggles, lack of following through, good intentions but poor implementations, bad luck, and poor decision making. I see decisions clouded by the fog of illness that caused the ending to be far more traumatic than what was necessary. I see moments of pride, good luck, good character, good decisions, following through until the end, good implementations, good thought process, and happy endings. These are only a few of what I see in the many windows that are scattered throughout the hallways of my past. Looking at some of the memories bring tears of joy while others bring tears of sorrow, anger, and even confusion. Some of the hallways are easy to find my out but others are more like a maze that I can get lost in. This is where I have to be the most careful. Because I’ll start trying to understand why something happened the way it did or someone else’s actions which are all things that I had no control over. But I’ll still get lost trying to understand something or attempting to change the end result now, in the present, even though it is not in my power to ever understand or to change. So, today I remind myself that while it’s OK to return to the hallways of my past to remember a loved one’s face that is no longer with me or to remember how a special event felt such as my husband’s first kiss but to draw the line when I find myself getting lost because I don’t live in my past anymore. I live in my present with people who know me and love me for who I am today not for who I was or did yesterday. Yes, I have a past but I affirm that I will no longer live there.

            … we’d grab ours back.” Regina Brett said it best. While I love all inspirational quotes, this one always seems relatable – no matter what is going on in life. It always brings me back to a memory I have from several years ago, a memory that perfectly parallels this positive line.

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