Dwelling on the what if's of a huge disaster that may never happen is not a good idea. I used to have massive panic attacks because I read an article about how the world was going to flip poles in 2003 or something. Anyway, I had just had a baby and the world was about to come to an end. This article was written by a scientist and touting how a pole flip may have been part of the reason the dinosaurs were extinct. It took me about six months to recover from that one article.

Well, as we all know, the poles didn't suddenly flip and we're all still here. I learned that freaking out over "what ifs" is a bad idea.

So, think of it this way:

The reason most people with bipolar are medicated is to fit into the "box" of society. That grand idea that everyone must work a 9 hour a day job, smile and say "fine" when asked "how are you?" Everyone must live in a house with a white picket fence, have 2.3 children, wake up at 6:30 a.m. and go to bed at 9:30 p.m. We must all listen to the same pop music, watch the same t.v. shows, graduate college and dilligantly pay our bills quietly and without complaining. We all have to color inside the lines. If you happen to not fit into this box, you are less somehow.

So if tomorrow the zombie apocolyps or whatever comes, all those lovely box dreams will die. Your high anxiety might keep you alive longer because you're more likely to react to things out of place, giving you a stronger fight or flight response. Your mania might give you the drive to run faster, longer. Your depression might get you to hunker down and stay silent where no one else is going to find you, thus the hord / bandits pass you by unnoticed. Paranoia will aid you in keeping strangers at arm's length and not trusting too quickly. And delusions / hallucinations can suddenly install you as someone with foresight and wisdom, just like the shamans of earlier times. Thinking of it that way puts a new spin on things. right?