2009-02-02

Bipolar Awareness Month


Hi Everyone,
I hope you are doing well I am doing good. Today when I visited Insanity Personified she drew my attention to the fact that it is Bipolar Awareness Month. Thank you Jane for writing so openly about your illness and not being ashamed of it. In society today we are so able to separate the disease from the person, for example if someone has cancer, we do not get scared and avoid them. If they are alcoholic we excuse them for their wrong doings because of their disease. Yet I have not come to see to many people accept the mentally ill so freely. I ask you in memory of my mother who suffered needlessly because medicine was not advanced in her generation. Please take the same approach to anyone in the world that you meet that has a mental illness. Do not avoid them if they are in a bad place. Instead give them your compassion and they will respond lovingly in time when they learn to trust you. So many times they have lost their trust with others who have shamed them for not being as "Normal" as they think they are. Show them light when they are in the darkest of days. Love them unconditionally as you want others to do to you. If they need to get to a place for help and get medicine, be their guide and help them to feel safe. You will be amazed in the long run what your love and acceptance will bring out in that person. You will see their true self emerge and not the disease because you made them feel secure which is so hard for them. It is truly a miracle before your eyes for I have experienced that with my mother and many of the people I work with. In these relationships you will find you are the blessed one for having them in your lives. To learn more about this illness click on the link below and the link on my sidebar.
Take Care,
Janet :)
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml

3 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for mentioning both my blog and Bipolar Awareness Month. Your post is very touching and enlightening. I shudder to think of the experiences your mother had with bipolar back in the 'dark ages' of mental health. My hope is that someday mental illness will be viewed no differently than cancer or diabetes, and that it will lose its stigma. People like you will make that happen.

    Thank you.

    Jane

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  2. We should all be more compassionate in all ways!! This was a truly great article! Bless your Mom for coming through all that she went through, and for you and her other children for understanding that it wasn't her fault.

    You are a blessing!!

    I have given you another award over at my site... :)

    Take Care,

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