How I deal with depression after having bipolar & pursuing enlightenment for 9 years

[BipolarGrowth]

It’s quite common to get into a depressed state and internally start freaking out a bit. The mind gets overactive thinking of how to escape the negative state. We look at the causes of the low state and try to change them from a place of low energy and motivation. If we fail at changing our behavior in this challenging state which makes positive change often very difficult, this can often snowball depressive feelings as we begin to see ourselves as a failure to a degree or at least below “where we should be”. One of the most helpful things I’ve figured out about depression is that worrying about a negative state being there in the first place is often one of the biggest things one can do to unintentionally extend and further intensify the negative state. If you look at a current moment of “negativity” and remained unphased by it due to the intimate knowledge that it can do nothing but eventually change and pass, the negative state will likely wave itself on out of your experience faster and easier than if you were to fight it. 

 

[Thought Art]

Good insights. Thanks for sharing. 

[Inliytened1]

Good post.  This is also the way one overcomes OCD.  With OCD one will get obsessions and the subsequent need to act out a compulsion to relieve the anxiety of the obsession.   This compulsion can be either physical or mental.  However although the compulsion may seem like it provides short term relief for the obsession - it is actually strengthening the obsessions and they come back stronger.  The best thing to do is just let to the obsession pass without acting on it or paying it any mind.   It actually wants you to feed it with attention and get emotional about it (feelings of guilt, worrying, etc).  Yet it's always the counterintuitive move (in this case the lack of) that actually is the way through. 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Inliytened1

[Matt23]

Word

A super simple insight I got from Peter Ralston was "It's just a feeling."  Somehow, whenever I'm experiencing frightful and really difficult feelings, I can think this thought and be totally ok again.  It's like "Oh ya... this dread I feel is literally just a feeling.  It's not necessarily true.. it's just a feeling.  Just like the blue on the car outside is blue, and the sound of the wind in the trees is "rrsssttllrrrsssttll".