A very simple question ?

are you thriving or just surviving ... ?

Mostly just surviving, but I do try to seek out simple pleasures, as I can, to make my life a bit better. I'm still on disability and unable to function sufficiently enough to say I'm thriving.

Surviving
..

Just surviving

I don't see it as an 'either / or.' It's a spectrum. I like to rate things on a scale of +5 to -5, so zero is neutral. If +5 is thriving and -5 is just surviving i'd say i am at a -1. But i'm definitely rising. Like BirdDancer, i'm on disability benefits so that's a big limitation.

At the moment, mostly thriving. I'm not taking a moment of it for granted.

What do you call it when you're not either..yeah that.

In this imperfect world, my world is almost perfect. (For now.)

Surviving , I have no idea how to be honest ..... the past 31 weeks and 4 days have totally effed me up and not seeing much hope atm.

* sigh *

Thriving on the surface. Surviving on the inside. Fake it in the world of fakers. No one cares about me anyways. Sorry for my negativity it's just the way it is at the moment

Neither. I am just existing. I am in a holding pattern.

Mostly days I'm surviving. Sometimes I'm probably thriving. But does that word really mean?

I always seem to be thriving from the outside, while noone knows that I’m surviving from the inside

Surviving. Just barely; depression has a strong hold.

Trying to thrive, but I get burnt out easily. Not used to doing a lot yet. Hopefully that'll change soon.

I am "existing but not living"

I am always saying how I have never done this, done that, etc etc.

not only did I have a ****ed up childhood (so was not allowed many of the privilages), I now have so much to deal with, and so many suicidal feelings/ abuse worries, god knows what else to deal with, why bother?.

oh... mannic rash decisions (wanting to go to vegas and disneyland, I don't want that ****)

I made my entire bucket list while mannic, most of it involving meeting people who I don't even like, or going places that don't interest me

restart *cough cough*

milk a cow- that is something I deffenetly want to do (I think it will be fun)

but the rest?

no no no

Hey. I think we do both, depending on the moment. Hopefully there is some more tbrival than survival, but then again I don’t even Know if that is a good indicator. I always said as long as there were more goodn days than bad then all is okay. But one really good day can make up for months of bad ones sometimes.

It’s funny but facing actual survival of my body and not just my psyche and mind, I find that I am fighting very hard to stay alive, when my physical illness would give me a blameless “out” if I really wanted it. So the fact that I am fighting amidst trying times is a success in my book, even if from the outside looking in it may look like i am barely treading water. Right now I want to be here and I think that’s enough for me. Anything more than that is just unnecessary pressure I am putting on myself. Sp surviving or thriving or existing, I am not sure it matters so much where we are as it does where we want and hope to be one day.
But I think anybody here is doing more than just surviving, just by the mere fact that you are reaching out here to give and get support. To me that shows more than just merely survival, it shows kicking some serious asss.

Surviving right now. Pain issues, family problems, winter depression are bringing me down.

Most people would say I'm thriving, but I know that I'm always just barely hanging on.

You seem very courageous, maybe adventuresome, and are able to make the most of life, it seems. You are just hanging on, but you are also in Cairo, via your determination. I admire this about you.

WC

Hold on dear one. You have made a REAL difference in my struggles recently so I am making it a point to applaud what an AMAZING asset you are to so many people here. You just hang on, the dark clouds pass, even when they totally feel like they never will.

I am absolutely and totally thriving. I had been surviving by hiding underneath BEING AND EXISTING in Bipolar, that I never gave myself the chance to take the strength to take out the BEING bipolar part, and pull it outside of myself to now say it is something I simply HAVE.

I am not speaking for others when I say this, but the crap I was doing to myself was self-inflicted and I TOTALLY knew it. How did I ever expect for anything to improve if I kept on with the self-damaging behavior? Things happen sometimes that can shake us to our bipolar core and we can fall apart, but we can also put ourselves together too. Either way, we need to take that Warrior strength that we have when we battle this mental illness and use it to improve the quality of our lives.

Thank you, Lady Shadow!

WC

that I never gave myself the chance to take the strength to take out the BEING bipolar part, and pull it outside of myself to now say it is something I simply HAVE.(" LadyShadow") ...

very well said ...

barely surviving