Bipolar: What Are You Passionate About?

Everyone is passionate about something. Or at least they should be. It's part of what keeps the excitement in your llife. It keeps you heading toward your goals. It gives you determination. It is part of the makeup of your character.

I am passionate about helping people. Whether it is my writing or my speaking (one-on-one or groups), as long as I am helping at least one person, it helps to keep me passionate.

I'm sure you have read it in my blog - in my last one I was passionate about my sister and her suicide, and about people with bipolar disorder going off their medication (don't!). So suicide is something else I'm passionate about.

I want everyone to hold strongly onto their lives, no matter what they're going through. So I try to help people through what they're going through.

There's no disputing that I had a bad past. But I am passionate about using that past to help others. I believe that I went through what I did for a reason, and that reason is so I can help people.

Otherwise it was just a lot of wasted agony and suffering. But if just one person can benefit from my pain and suffering, then it was worth it.

It's kind of hard, having helping people to be what you're passionate about, because by its nature, bipolar disorder can be a very selfish disorder - it tries to keep you thinking only about yourself.

Like I had said in my last post, if you think about suicide, you are only thinking about your own pain, and not the pain you would cause those you'd leave behind if you did kill yourself.

A bipolar depression is another example - sometimes the depression brings you to self-pity, making it last even longer. At those times, it's hard to even listen to the encouragement of others through the ears of self-pity.

So what are YOU passionate about? Your job? Your hobbies? Your volunteer work? People? Your family? Your hopes and dreams? Your education? Your future? Your relationship? A cause?

I am also passionate about the cause of mental illness. I am involved with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and their program called In Your Own Voice, where you go to venues and tell your story of mental illness and recovery.

I am also a trainer in this program, training other presenters on how to tell their stories. I am truly passionate about this, because it helps to de-stigmatize mental illness and give people hope about recovery from it.

I am all about giving people, especially people with bipolar disorder and other disorders, hope and encouragement that things won't always be this way if they are struggling. I want them to know that if I can recover, so can they - that if I could reach stability, then it is a possibility for them as well.

Too many people with bipolar live isolated lives, with a negative outlook on their future - they have no hope that things will get better for them, but I am passionate about letting them know that things CAN get better, even if you have bipolar disorder.

I am a good example. By all rights, I should have been one of those "throwaway" cases, with no hope for stability, much less recovery. But look at me now! I was passionate about becoming an author, and I have achieved that dream, for one example.

I was passionate about re-establishing relationships with my children, and I have achieved that dream. I have been passionate about several things and have achieved those dreams as well.

If you know what you are passionate about, you have a direction to your life. I hope you have that direction. But if you don't, I encourage you today to think about this topic. What ARE you passionate about?

If you don't know, come up with something, and throw yourself into it. It will make a difference in your life, believe me! And possibly in other people's lives as well!

Be passionate!

Wishing you peace and stability,

Don't forget to check out my bipolar book at: www.brokenroseministries.com

Remember God loves you and so do I,

Michele