Tag Archives: Equanimity
Erasing my self
“There is a silence where hath been no sound.
There is a silence where no sound may be—
in the cold grave, under the deep deep sea.”
— From Thomas Hood’s poem “Silence”
Sleep, bipolar disorder, the benefits of detours, and Hillary Clinton bobblehead dolls
For the last couple of weeks I have been seriously out of whack. To try to describe my current experience I began with bobbleheads dolls, a useful analogy for my current experience. All of us respond to whack on the head, but some of us more easily respond to a blow, are thrown out of equilibrium more severely, and it takes us longer to back into balance. But then, in trying to find a video which illustrates this, I ran into a huge pocket of bobblehead culture and veered almost totally off-topic.
Bipolar poet – Edna St. Vincent Millay
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay
Between the devil and the deep blue sea [reissued post, with musical afterword]
Odysseus had to navigate between the two destructive forces — a ferocious six-headed sea monster and a downward spiraling maelstrom. If you read the Odyssey and work through the analogy there are similarities to navigating between mania and depression. [This is a reissued version of my first post. A reader referred me to a George Harrison song, which I felt was a useful addition and so added it to the end.]
Living against the grain – Doing the opposite of what we feel like doing
With bipolar disorder, whenever you feel strongly compelled to do something, truly inspired to pursue a relationship, salivate over a potential purchase — just don’t. That way lies danger. And the reverse – when you feel like you can’t live one moment longer, if you don’t have the energy to get out of bed, and when you genuinely do not care about brushing your teeth or even world peace, it is time to get up and out of the chair and out the front door.
Recent comments