Hi there!
My refrigerator is a time machine.
I swear I clean it out frequently, but then I’ll go to grab one of my least favorite salad dressings. Glancing at the label, I’ll notice it expired two years ago, but it feels like I just bought it.
See? A time machine.
While expiration dates are unpleasant when you find your favorite condiment is past its date, they teach a valuable lesson. Everything has an expiration date.
It’s a lesson I’m remembering now as I fight a painful depressive episode.
"Our trials, our sorrows, and our grieves develop us."
- Orison Swett Marden
Scott Ninneman also publishes the free All Things Bipolar Newsletter (off Substack). The Sunday email features the newest content about bipolar life.
Bipolar Cycles End
During a chaotic bipolar episode, it may feel like it’ll never end. Whether manic on the scale of the Tasmanian Devil or depressed like Marvin the robot, the intense emotions at the time feel unchangeable.
Yet, no matter how extreme, every episode has an expiration date.
I found out I had bipolar nearly 30 years ago. In the decades since, I can tell you one thing for sure: all cycles end. I had depressive periods lasting for months, and manic episodes that ended with hospital stays, but they all had one thing in common.
Every terrible stretch ended.
The same is true with other trials in your life. Your job with the horrible boss? Your time with him will end one day. The obnoxious neighbor next door? One of you will eventually move.
Everything has an expiration date. Every trial ends.
Bipolar Lies
The problem comes on the darkest days, when you feel completely worthless and unlovable. Bipolar whispers in your ear lies about how you’ll never feel better again and how no one will ever love you. It’s the lies I’m fighting right now.
The pain is unimaginable for someone who’s never been through it, but I have. I’ve lived the nights where I fought, second by second, to stay alive. My bipolar mind screamed lies so loud they drowned out everything else, but I’m still here.
Why? Because cycles end. The worst days aren’t forever, no matter how much it feels like it. The episode I’m fighting now will also end, and yours will, too.
You will feel better again, no matter what the chorus in your head says. Color will return to your world and love to your heart.
If things feel unending right now, hold on. It will end.
Go open your refrigerator and look at the contents. Everything in there has an end date, and so does your current trial. Your job is to keep fighting until then.
Write It Out
Use these writing prompts to help you meditate on trials or to visit another world.
Journal Prompt: What are you struggling with most right now? Think about times you conquered similar trials in the past. How can those memories give you strength?
Creative Writing Prompt: While putting away freshly laundered towels, you discover your linen closet is a portal to another time. Where does it go? Walk through the door and write about what happens.
Until next time, keep fighting.
Scott Ninneman
Additional Reading:
The book that started it all…
Disclaimer:
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