Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
Of all the many things you will feel as you try to adjust to being officially bipolar, guilt is perhaps the most burdensome and difficult to get a grip on.
There's guilt over your past obnoxious behaviors and overt sexual indiscretions, the way you've treated family and friends, the lack of attention or care you've given your children, the inability to maintain jobs or relationships and the nagging self-doubt about your own sense of worth.
Despite all the foregoing, remember this, in fact, make it your personal motto: GUILT IS A WASTED EMOTION. It comes from an exaggerated sense of responsibility aimed at the wrong kinds of things and for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes it comes from all those do's and don't's you've had drilled into you by mom, dad, school and the church. Forget them, unless they were principles you personally chose after very careful thought, they don't matter now and they never did.
What matters now is the future you choose to follow. From this point on, the choice and the responsibility are all yours. That's a little intimidating, but it's also a very freeing kind of thought as well. Try it on for size; you might come to appreciate it. If nothing else, it unties that old guilt-knot in one's stomach.
There's guilt over your past obnoxious behaviors and overt sexual indiscretions, the way you've treated family and friends, the lack of attention or care you've given your children, the inability to maintain jobs or relationships and the nagging self-doubt about your own sense of worth.
Despite all the foregoing, remember this, in fact, make it your personal motto: GUILT IS A WASTED EMOTION. It comes from an exaggerated sense of responsibility aimed at the wrong kinds of things and for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes it comes from all those do's and don't's you've had drilled into you by mom, dad, school and the church. Forget them, unless they were principles you personally chose after very careful thought, they don't matter now and they never did.
What matters now is the future you choose to follow. From this point on, the choice and the responsibility are all yours. That's a little intimidating, but it's also a very freeing kind of thought as well. Try it on for size; you might come to appreciate it. If nothing else, it unties that old guilt-knot in one's stomach.
guilt is something the WORLD puts on us... we don't have to listen to THEM! we know our own hearts :)
I still haven't felt guilty about breaking into my mother's house last year when I was in a psychosis. I put my family of origin through a lot that time.
I felt a lot of guilt the last time I was ill because I put my husband through a lot. We talked about it and he still is not ok with it so I still feel badly although it was out of my control.
I think guilt is an emotion because we think we could have done something to stop our bad behaviours but we couldn't because it is an illness. So I am not sure that feeling guilty is very productive for us. It is like taking responsiblity for something that we couldn't control. It was out of our hands if you truly believe that you have an illness.
On the other hand i think that we can do something about our stress levels that act as a trigger. We can change ourselves so that we can handle the stress better. I have just realized that I am very willful. I think some things should be done my way and only my way. I create stress for myself this way in some situations like when I was teaching I didn't change myself to meet the demands of the admin. I just kept on teaching like I always did and expected the admin to change for me. I was blaming them for all my problems. I ended up creating stress that led to several break downs.
This is something I need to change about myself and I am using faith to help me. I am starting to accept that things must be God's will not my will and that everything happens for a reason. I am starting to look at myself and through therapy I hope to change my thinking so that I react to stress differently.