Do you feel guilty about mood episodes?

I'm exhausted! My grandma went completely psychotic last night and I could not convince her of the truth, so that was a royal pain in the @ss to handle, hence my exhaustion. (Her psychosis usually isn't this bad, btw.) I calmed her down by bringing her to the local bakery and letting her pick out some sweets, since she had been wanting to go for a while.

I guess it makes you realize what people have to put up with when you're psychotic, or in any mood state, really. Now it makes me feel bad when I have an episode, even though it's usually not my fault. (It's my fault when I get high on Adderall. Lol.) It's really hard on people, harder than I thought, so I really ought to give more credit to people when they help out. It takes a lot of mental and physical effort on their part to offer support.

What do you think?

You've done a nice job with your grandmother.

I agree with you, on that we should remember to give credit to the people dedicated to trying to help us through challenging times.

Do I feel guilty? umm... I feel more defective than guilty, yet I do feel some guilt when I think of what my H goes through.

What do I think? I think you're a gem.


WC

I understand what you're saying. I feel more guilty when I have anxiety/panic attacks because it's so much more obvious then with my severe depression episodes.

My daughter even asked me last night whether I'd be having a panic attack if I went with her to orientation or should she ask her dad. I felt bad.

I'm appreciative to those in my life who support me in my illness. Best wishes.

I feel ashamed.

I feel guilty when depressed when I totally "shouldn't" be. When there's nothing someone on the outside could "pin it on" so it makes some degree of sense to them. That they can "explain" it, even if the "explanation" is the wrong one.

So much shame. I just want to protect everyone from me and hide away.

I feel guilty for my general incapacity to function due to ECT.

I have felt guilty in the past.

When I met my wife, I was in denial of my illness. As such, I didn't tell her about the extent of it.

Later on it all came to light and I felt horrible. The illness of course, but I felt like I had "trapped" my wife into loving me and then dropping the bomb on her.

She loved me and we just figured out a plan to get me healthy and stay on the path of recovery and eventually wellness.

I only feel bad for my son. I thought catching it early would make it not as bad. I was wrong.

I feel guilty for letting others witness my symptoms, because I know I'm not always pleasant to be around. That might be why I have no friends and ruined my romantic relationship. I'm ashamed of the person I present myself as due to my disorder.

I dont feel guilty anymore...... well 99% of the time I dont .

I learned through Therapy that piling on guilt and shame does nothing but slow down the process of healing and finding stability again.

I do make amends for anything I have done that has upset anyone .. But that said I seldom ever have episodes that I share with the general public , I turn everything inward to an on my self...

This topic is exactly what I worked so hard in T .. One of my biggest goals were met, Was tough as hell but I think T should be hard or its not being done right.

Ps tasty pastries ? You made her day ! Good for you

Guilt yes and sadness they have to put up with me.

This is how I feel as well.

I feel so ashamed of how i behaved while hypomanic and/or not medicated. It's so hard to live with myself. Throughout the day i mutter, "I'm so embarrassed," over and over as shameful memories occur to me. I call them 'shame stings.' I withdraw from life most of the year so at least i don't create any more shameful memories to torment myself. It's hard being me.

Yes I have to admit I wish we could choose the memories we keep. I'm sorry you withdraw from life most of the year.
I hope we can all find ways to forgive ourselves and simply live and live simply.

I feel guilty for my family. My daughter has missed a lot of things because of my moods. My husband has MS, and my illness can stress him and make his flare-ups worse. But they still support me and I support them back as much as I can. It's all worked out.

I feel bad that I have to live with my family

I never feel guilty or ashamed about the episodes themselves. Occasionally they lead me to do some things that aren't great but somehow those are separate in my mind.

I'm most guilty about checking completely out on a family member who didn't have hardly anybody else during my last four year low. But I'm moving forward. And I'm embarrassed about a few things I've done during hypomanic Peak Experiences, but it is what it is - and the people who matter took it in stride and didn't run away from me, whereas the people who don't matter did run away.

I am however temperamentally resistant to guilt and shame unless I know I did something against my own moral code, so that really helps. I'm actually trying to get better at talking about guilt/shame issues because I don't understand them at a gut level but so many of my friends and loved ones with depression and bipolar struggle with it.

I made a really cool new friend who is absolutely racked with guilt over pretty much this exact situation. I mentioned that it was their partner's free choice, every day, to stand beside them and ride out the storms with them. Obviously those aren't magic words that will fix things, but the friend said they really felt better to hear that.

I feel guilty because I feel like if I tried harder to control my moods maybe my husband wouldn't have turned to drugs. I feel like I made life so difficult for us that the addiction was a way for him to cope. Maybe he'd still be alive if I had t deliberately chased mania and all the ****** stuff I did.

I know none of that's true. I know the addiction wasn't my fault. But sometimes I still wonder. But I don't get hung up on it. I work on it in therapy too.