Comments on: Prepare for the prodigal’s return http://willspirit.com/2009/09/10/prepare-for-the-prodigals-return/ Where Will meets Spirit Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:05:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Will http://willspirit.com/2009/09/10/prepare-for-the-prodigals-return/comment-page-1/#comment-346 Will Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:13:51 +0000 http://willspirit.com/?p=1355#comment-346 sisyphusgal-- I hope you will not mind if I suggest it does not have to be that way. I doubt if anyone has felt more anguish or more hopeless than I have at my worst moments (though I am certain many have felt just as bad). The steps from life to death looked so short and inviting that it is miraculous I did not succumb to my suicidal urges. These days, I still experience those pains, but they no longer make me wish I were not alive. They no longer make it impossible for me to appreciate the experience of being a living, breathing organism. That is the secret that psychiatry never revealed (because it does not yet know): black feelings can be tolerated, even embraced, without personal catastrophe. To anyone who feels overwhelmed by emotions, I recommend looking into <a>ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)</a>. It is a philosophy all about giving up the struggle against 'bad' moods, and taking the minute-by-minute train of events and feelings as it comes and without judgment. It is not an easy path. I was deeply skeptical when I started. But the truth is, we can all suffer more than we realize, and still enjoy life. Another, similar source of the same kind of idea is <a href="http://www.bipolaradvantage.com/" rel="nofollow">Bipolar Advantage</a> (at this moment their website appears to be down, but I imagine they will fix it soon). It may be that you do not need or want this suggestion. As before, I apologize if that is so. But there are many out there, I am sure, who could benefit as much as I have from learning to embrace what once seemed overwhelming and unacceptable. Best wishes, and thank you very much for your comment. --Will sisyphusgal–
I hope you will not mind if I suggest it does not have to be that way. I doubt if anyone has felt more anguish or more hopeless than I have at my worst moments (though I am certain many have felt just as bad). The steps from life to death looked so short and inviting that it is miraculous I did not succumb to my suicidal urges. These days, I still experience those pains, but they no longer make me wish I were not alive. They no longer make it impossible for me to appreciate the experience of being a living, breathing organism. That is the secret that psychiatry never revealed (because it does not yet know): black feelings can be tolerated, even embraced, without personal catastrophe. To anyone who feels overwhelmed by emotions, I recommend looking into ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). It is a philosophy all about giving up the struggle against ‘bad’ moods, and taking the minute-by-minute train of events and feelings as it comes and without judgment. It is not an easy path. I was deeply skeptical when I started. But the truth is, we can all suffer more than we realize, and still enjoy life. Another, similar source of the same kind of idea is Bipolar Advantage (at this moment their website appears to be down, but I imagine they will fix it soon).

It may be that you do not need or want this suggestion. As before, I apologize if that is so. But there are many out there, I am sure, who could benefit as much as I have from learning to embrace what once seemed overwhelming and unacceptable.

Best wishes, and thank you very much for your comment.
–Will

]]> By: sisyphusgal http://willspirit.com/2009/09/10/prepare-for-the-prodigals-return/comment-page-1/#comment-344 sisyphusgal Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:25 +0000 http://willspirit.com/?p=1355#comment-344 "We are told that because of mental ‘illness’, we are closed off from the ‘healthy’ condition of stability and dispassion." But how many people really live within this "healthy condition"? I think of all the people I know who do not have a "mental illness" and they are just as prone to the shifting weather patterns of emotions as I am. The difference being that what I experience is more than I can manage. I suffer no more or less than the person standing beside me, but my suffering destroys me. Good post. “We are told that because of mental ‘illness’, we are closed off from the ‘healthy’ condition of stability and dispassion.”

But how many people really live within this “healthy condition”? I think of all the people I know who do not have a “mental illness” and they are just as prone to the shifting weather patterns of emotions as I am. The difference being that what I experience is more than I can manage. I suffer no more or less than the person standing beside me, but my suffering destroys me.

Good post.

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