The following is from the
website: Mindfulness and Bipolar Disorder. This site is intended to bring awareness to different
perspectives of bipolar disorder to help people in their own journey.
Simply put, bipolar
disorder is marked by extremes, whereas Buddhism is a philosophy that offers
guidance by choosing the "Middle Way." It advocates and teaches
patience, moderation, compassion toward oneself and others, and most
importantly, offers us the tools to understand our mind so that we are in
control of our experiences, not the other way around.
One of the things
Buddhism teaches is how human beings try to cling to the idea of permanence. In
society today, this is manifested in our obsession with youth, holding on to
social norms, and "loyality" to one's own political party/ideology as
if it were an extension of ourselves.
On a sub-systemic level,
many of us try to perpetrate this ideal of permanence by avoiding the idea of
death and wanting to control those around us to sustain our stagnant realities.
This perception can disillusion us, for people are constantly changing,
growing, and moving, and so to find peace we must avoid seeing them as fixed
entities in our lives.
Emotions are perhaps one
of the greatest illusions of permanence of all. You can see for yourself if you
keep track of your moods for every hour in one day. You will see that your
moods, as well as those of others, fluctuate very quickly, sometimes for
biological reasons as well (hunger, lack of sleep, etc), and are therefore
unfit to give such significance.
Many people make the
mistake of making their decisions based on these emotions, which is not always
wrong, as long as they are accompanied by some logic and planning. A good quote
to keep in mind is:
"Let your emotions be a guide, but not THE
guide."
This is especially true
for people like me with bipolar disorder. We are a particular demographic that
has a great sensitivity to our emotions, but unfortunately it can be a struggle
to get along well with others or thrive in our jobs unless we take control of
our emotions. It is easy to feel angry, and to want to give up because
your body and brain are betraying you, but even this is just a feeling that is
justified with distorted "rationalized" thinking.
After several years of
being tortured by the uncertainty of my mind, avoiding many social situations
that I knew would be triggers for me, and sabotaging relationships, I was ready
to take control of my emotions and practice mindfulness and compassion.
Yes, bipolar disorder has
a biological basis that effects the brain, but by strengthening your mind with
meditation, introspection, and welcoming compassion and openness, you can be on
your way to start healing and reclaiming your happiness.
The author writes "Yes, bipolar disorder has a biological basis that effects the brain, but by strengthening your mind with meditation, introspection, and welcoming compassion and openness, you can be on your way to start healing and reclaiming your happiness." My bipolar "activated" nearly a decade after I began meditating and five years after I began practicing Zen. In my case, my mind was already strong, trained in compassion, and fairly open, in contact with healing and health. I think it's somewhat skewed to assume Buddhism is always only a "prescription." I think it's also skewed to speak as if bipolar totally annihilates happiness, suggesting that bipolar people are always divorced from happiness. Furthermore, from experience I think it's deceiving/deluded to say one can "take control of my emotions and practice mindfulness and compassion" in the context of bipolar disorder. If one continues to have episodes, you cannot Buddhism [<-- verb] your way out of the mind states associated with hypo-/manic and depressive episodes. Mania and bipolar depression don't care how much you've practiced or what insights you've had. Buddhism helps, but it cannot cure bipolar, cannot enable one to totally control their mind. Just because bipolar symptoms appear to correspond with problems that Buddhism addresses, that doesn't mean that Buddhism is the tool the situation calls for. And in the bigger picture, Buddhism is much more than a "prescription" and should not be reduced to one. I sincerely hope that "you can be on your way to start healing" really means "you will be aided in continuing on the path of therapy, medication, a healthy diet, exercise, and other forms of treatment that work for you." But by neglecting to discuss Buddhism's limitations in treating bipolar or anything referred to as "mental illness" in conventional medicine, or Buddhism's role in a well-rounded treatment program, it's doubtful that the author realizes the irresponsibility, delusion, and attachment of treating, even implicitly, Buddhism as a panacea for mental illness.
ReplyDeleteWell I didn't read a lot of what your did in the article. Most of the beginning of it is just repetition of Buddhist rhetoric I guess. In my experience Gotama's Dharma, insights and practices are a prescription first, an antidote to reactivity and suffering. Obviously not all reactivity and suffering all at once. Whatever you consider when you say it's much more than that, well I guess that's personal.
DeleteDo you think your reaction to bipolar disorder was or wasn't affected by the years of practice you had prior to that?
Strengthening the mind is misleading I think. You can strengthen a deluded mind making it harder to see through delusion for instance. Stabilizing and focusing the mind can absolutely be accomplished to some degree and that affects everything. It allows one to better see and examine ones reactivity and gradually replace reactivity with volitional thought. I'm still an ethical compassionate person even when depressed or anxiety ridden. I acknowledge it's not bipolar, schizophrenia, it psychosis.
I was diagnosed with MDD and major anxiety disorder almost 30 years ago. And was a drug addict at various times. One thing I always held on to, had faith in, saw results from, was my continued practice. Practicing and focus can be used during these times, granted not always, and rarely does it immediately relieve the problem in the moment. But it works as intended. It gives you some freedom of choice, imparts a bit of control. Over time continued practice changes the way your brain actually functions. It rewires some it it. I'm able to use vipassana meditation to manage and deescalate panic attacks. I've eliminates many of the thought processes that contributed to my depression with or without medication. I havent felt the need to take meds for 4 years now.
I agree that it needs to be stressed that my case is probably by far an exception rather than a rule and that it's dangerous to think that Buddhist practice is a cure all. I work in psych and some illness probably shouldn't be approached with meditation practices, but mindfulness and cognitive techniques are always useful.
Western psychology would have us believe that no kind of mental illness can be cured, only managed .I can't agree with a conclusion that is the result of less than a century of observation and a limited toolset thats working mechanism is almost entirely a mystery. Causality is never a dead end street.
However you see it, Gotama's Dharma has the potential to transform oneself in a positive way. Even if it's only to facilitate hope and some evidence that one can heal a bit, even if that bit only happens to be imparting a sense of hope and empowerment.
Plus I suspect this author had a word limit on the article.
Thank you for your very insightful comment!
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