Useful Tool/Technique

If ONE more person tells me that I should feel better soon because the sun is shining I WILL scream! Yet, when I stop to think about it, it's no wonder we hear this so often.  It's also no wonder we hear so many different pieces of advice which seem to contradict each other and/or rub us the wrong way.  This is my attempt at bringing a bit of clarity into the general confusion..

Following my interview on News Talk Radio last Monday 7th February (if you wish to listen click on 3 and my interview starts after 4 minutes), it occurred to me that I have been forming an important part of my 'recovery philosophy' these past few months. I call it The Three 'Hs'.

My first H is Humility.

As I was sitting in bed, waiting for my brain and my body to get used to the higher dose of medication my psychiatrist and I agreed I should go on, a thought struck me. I am pretty sure it's not brilliant nor is it original but it fills a gap for me in the way I think of my Bi-Polar Disorder (BPD II).

There are many days when the frustration I feel about my unreliable level of energy spills into my dreams - more specifically my morning 'vivid' dream (see my description of them in Medication: Friend or Foe?).

Yesterday I had a good cry. How can I tell it was a 'good' cry as opposed to a 'bad' cry or even a mediocre one? I have a failsafe way of telling the difference: my energy goes up afterwards and I feel a lot better about feeling bad.

As I had finished writing to my Bi-Polar Depression, I felt another letter knocking at the door of my thinking. As it won't go away, I think it best for me to take action: in order to complete my personal healing correspondence I also need to write a letter to my medication.  So here goes.

Dear Medication

My counsellor J has just started studying for a qualification in CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. My psychiatrist has referred me for CBT so I am very interested in it, both from a personal perspective and from a professional one. There is a very long waiting list for CBT within psychiatric care so this is yet another good opportunity for me to exercise patience...

My friend JC suggested that I use an old army 'trick' to give me a visual representation of the fluctuations I go through - in his soldiering days, JC was used to seeing troops use such a visual representation known as The Readiness Wheel. 

Personal Ecology is a proprietary model of human behaviours which has been developed over the last four years by Human Ecology through research at Oxford University.

Personal Ecology models human behaviours against seven dimensions: