[spiritual_emergency]

Earlier this evening I re-listened to a vocal blurb with Steven Morgan that was part of a "Patient Voices" interview with the New York Times. I wrote the blurb down because I know I'm going to be looking for it at some point and might not be able to find it by then. The interview came with four photographs as well. One of them features Steven's hand spread across the works of Carl Jung. The accompanying text notes: Mr. Morgan uses a form of psychology developed by Carl Jung to help balance mood swings. Through meditation, dream therapy, exercise and nutrition, he has been able to cope with bipolar disorder for two years without medication.

This was of great interest to me because I've also found Jungian-based psychology to be immensely beneficial in my own healing. I did not receive any form of medication during my experience nor in the years recovering from it.

For those who might be interested, here's the transcript of Steven's thoughts on Bipolar Disorder...

I don't take medication. (Laughs) I'm the person that they say is impossible or they tell me I'll be in the hospital in a few years -- just wait and see. (Laughs some more.)

I spent three years on medications and during that time I learned to believe that the illness was not me, it was a part of me -- that it wasn't my full soul, that it was just a part of it. That was a helpful way to think about it because I could then manage it and try and work with it.

Even though I'd been adamantly, you know, 'I'm going to take medications for the rest of my life' -- that had been hammered into my head from everything I'd read and everyone I talked to -- I decided to go off. I took it very slow and I was very careful about it. About six months after withdrawing I realized that a lot of my cognitive faculties were back. The flip side of that was that I was more vulnerable to mood swings and to different kinds of thinking that could get me into trouble.

I eventually really came to a place where I realized that a chemical imbalance doesn't have anything to do with me. I don't see myself as mentally ill anymore. I don't consider myself in remission and I don't consider myself in denial either. There's actually, kind of a tragedy in being diagnosed. You really start to doubt some of your experiences and it really throws into question what you can trust in yourself and what you can't. I used to communicate with nature, pretty profoundly, and I would sort of start to see that as a symptom of mania as opposed to what it meant to me before -- which was that nature was speaking to me. So you can start to rewrite your entire life history as a product of illness.

If you are diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, this doesn't have to be looked at as a life-long, incurable condition. There are people that are living well with it and they're living beyond it in a way. That's not to make people feel ashamed if they haven't gotten to that place but it's just to say, be very careful about what kind of perspectives you buy into. The medical profession is not always the right perspective.

Source: NYT - Patient Voices: Steven Morgan (Scroll down and look for the guy with the beaming smile.)

Those who enjoyed that might also enjoy the following links. His personal story, The Wind Never Lies is especially moving. I've printed off a copy of his story and the blurb above to share with my child.

~ Namaste

See also:
- Steve Morgan ~ The Wind Never Lies [PDF File]

- Voices of Recovery: Steve Morgan on NAMI

[BNLsMOM]

Interesting perspective. I am at the point where I am trying not to pathologize all of my life experiences through the lens of bipolar thinking. It is hard to do because things that didn't make sense before begin to make sense in the context of illness, but other things that were merely pleasurable begin to take on an aura of disease.

Thank you for sharing this.

[spiritual_emergency]

Yes, I find his perspective refreshing and hopeful. Here's another quote of his that I've shared around...

When I believed that a chemical imbalance drove my everyday experience, I told myself, "I am Bipolar." When I learned that the chemical imbalance was only a part of me, I told other people, "I have Bipolar." When I discovered that a chemical imbalance has nothing to do with me, I realized, "I am Human."

I share these words with you as an illustration of how insight shaped my own journey towards wholeness and healing. Being diagnosed had the residual effect of transforming how I relate to the world and my experiences.

- Steven Morgan