It’s the last day of Mind health awareness week, I am reposting this as we need to be ready to understand.,. I do not seek to bring God down to our level, but to elevate BiPolar people….

The BiPolar God

BiPolar is a state of living where a person feels everything deeply and this can affect their behaviour and mindset. It is interpreted as swings of mood from extremes, but that is a subjective judgment. Sad things make us sad, and happy things make us happy. If you felt things deeply, you might have a more prominent reaction to life’s events. For the BiPolar person, sad is really sad and can lead to depression, and happy things can lead upward to an elevate state of mood. Sad things can also lead to an elevated state of mood, as over-compensation. It is very complicated and different for every person. 

It can be frightening until you understand it and come to terms with it, in yourself. It makes you a particular kind of person. Very creative, innovative, intelligent, resilient, patient, non-prejudiced (because you experience so much of it) super-sensitive and god-orientated. The kindest people I have known, I have met in psychiatric hospital. There is good reason for that…

The down side is painful. When tragedy strikes the BiPolar person will feel it very deeply. The emotions are heightened by chemical reactors in the brain and the intelligent mind will analyse and seek to understand the reasons why things happen. The analysing can get out of hand and lead to circular thinking, which can descend up or down into a state of mind. This can lead to a growing sense of sadness and a darkness descends on the life called Depression. In this mode, the mind will interpret everything negatively and it is almost impossible to counteract. The mind will systematically destroy everything and drag the person down in to a deep, dark pit. This is Depression.

 This is a very debilitating state and very difficult to get out of. Breaking free often means hitting a bottom and gradually building your way up again. It can involve hospital admission, which is very painful and often contributes to difficulties. Hospital can be a kind of refuge, but it creates a barrier to the “real” world. It can provide a buffer against what is causing the depression, and a reprieve for the daily grind of tedium, by providing another kind of tedium! Drug therapy can be good, but can also lead to problems in the future, with side effects and dependency.

It is good to find other strategies to help oneself get well and stay well. If the root of them problem can be found, that is the best way to deal with the sadness and learn to cope with the fall out from life events. Life events are often glossed over or we are somehow forced to stay with situations that are destructive to us. The sufferer may understand situations, but not be able to do anything about it. This is very debilitating for them, and leads to a lot of disappointment. It is good to have people or a person to talk to at this point.

People do need other people, but often there is no one around to help. The analysing can be a great help and a great hindrance at the same time. The sufferer learns to rely on themselves a lot, and this can undermine trust in other people. The analysing needs guidance, and it needs to have a foundation to turn to and a counsellor to guide and support the thinking, but this is rare. BiPolar people often protect themselves with silence. 

The up side is also painful, but seems the better option, at first. Being busy and doings things that keep our spirits up can get out of hand too… we can find ourselves “medicating” ourselves on what we do, say and think. We can be doing things to keep our psyche up, so that we avoid the terrors of Depression. This can be behaviour traits, or substance abuse. The addiction factor can be quite strong for BiPolar people. We can find ourselves involved with alcohol, cigarettes and other fairly dangerous substances, to try to alleviate the pain. The up side can lead to inflated thoughts and megalomania. It also contributes to paranoia and feeling of over-worthiness and under-worthiness.

Thought processes are really important, and the BiPolar person has to train themselves and keep their thinking on an even keel. The thoughts feed the feelings and we have to recognise the value of these two aspects of human character and keep them in their right places. This needs a lot of practice.  Up thoughts need tempering just like the down thoughts. God is completely involved in this massive, lifelong process, since He knows all about it and has made the BiPolar mind, as He has made all minds. To be in touch with Him, really is life and peace. He is the bedrock of the cure and the education of the mind. We need BiPolar minds, precisely because if the way they operate. BiPolar people are worth having around. 

The BiPolar mind is special and not to be trifled with. It can produce amazing outcomes, and creative solutions. The foolishness of other people can be a big burden. Foolishness generates stigma, which is completely destructive. People do not understand and it is unfair to ask them to do so, when they are not informed. This can be a terrible burden. This very much contributes to isolation and stagnation in thought and activity. Inclusion does not often seem offered to BiPolar people. 

The affect of powerful drugs can muddy the water, and hospital, while somewhat helpful at first, can really damage the sensitivities of mind sufferers. There are things that go on in hospitals that should not be. This needs to be addressed. 

Bi Polar is a difficult state to live with and not to be treated lightly. To be a Christian in close touch with God, is the best way. Mind sufferers are sensitive to the spiritual ideas, thought and feelings, and need to be able to discern what is best and right and good, the same as everyone else. Kindness is a feature of people who suffer in this way and sharing is key. Sharing experiences and ideas is a good way to get help in your own mind, as you see what others are saying too. However, the trust factor kicks in here, and sufferers try to manage alone, as it seems the safer option. 

BiPolar is lonely and isolating because of the lack of engagement with other people. People are scared because of the stigma that follows the labelled person around. Sufferers are special people, but never feel it. They are capable of so much good, spiritual good too, but rarely get the chance to show it or do it. 

The prophets of old were all this way, super sensitive people, devoted to God and open it His will and words. King David was BiPolar, we see that from the profile of his life and the incredible writing of the Psalms. The Apostle Paul also has the marks of BiPolar illness throughout his life and work. He asked God to take it away, but BiPolar is a state of being, not necessarily “illness.” The name is just a label for a set of recognisable “symptoms” and so the diagnosis is set. There is no recognisable “cure” but maybe “cure” is not necessary… Paul had to learn to live with it, and he did with amazing consequences for us all..!

This brings us to stigma. We do not want our favourite Bible people to have this stigma, so we deny it and continue to label people in our world as really ill or “unacceptable,” which Bible characters are protected from, Anyone who doesn’t fit in and exhibits different kinds of thoughts processes, is intelligent and creative and who’s mindset is unusual, we label with something. The Prophets of God had these traits.

The BiPolar mind is different and the ability to feel deeply is different, so “they” are not “normal.” This is unfair and prejudicial. This mentality is everywhere. People are afraid, and so they sideline and label the sufferers as “weirdos” or worse.

This is the root of prejudice and negative attitudes to BiPolar people. 

All the time, God draws close to them and they have propensities that normal people don’t have. BiPolar people are kept at bay and regarded suspiciously, because they are not included or allowed to fit in. This causes so many problems for the sufferer. But resilience takes over and God gives the strength to overcome. 

Jesus felt deeply for people. He healed them all, taught them, gave up everything for them and allowed Himself to die to save them, and us.. His life was full of extremes. Was He BiPolar? Does He understand? It must have been extraordinarily difficult for Him to live with us.! The downs and ups must have been huge for Him. 

Gethsemane was a dreadful low time, such sorrow and pain that is unimaginable, as Jesus knew what lay ahead in the next days. The glory of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection, such highs! Yes, Jesus knows all about it and has sympathy and camaraderie with BiPolar sufferers. Surely no one suffered stigma more than He did. They hated Him for no reason. 

Do we serve the BiPolar God?  He feels our pains and our infirmities even now in heaven. Jesus prays for us, to cope with what burdens we are given to bear. His empathy for us and towards us is perfect. He is not ill, as that is impossible, since he is the Healer, so is BiPolar an illness, or just a different state of mind? 

Our society is so riddled with prejudice about any number of things, and BiPolar people suffer more than most. It is the last great taboo. The last social prejudice to be addressed, and it will never be addressed fairly, because of the nature of the situation. BiPolar people will always be left out, because of the label, not because of who they are. They are judged wrongly and unjustly and this can have two effects. One effect is they will retreat into themselves and keep out of participating, or they will rise up and fight. The ones that rise up, are able to do amazing things, as history records. 

Which ones rise? The ones that are regarded by the people around them and allowed to thrive at their own pace and in their own way. The ones that do not experience prejudice and the dishonour of being forced into ways of living and working that are not natural to them. This is actually the same for everyone! 

God does what He pleases, He chooses, He creates, He upholds everything, He feels everything, knows everything and plans everything. Is He the BiPolar God? The only thing that stops us saying “Yes!!” Is our prejudice…