Hi,

I was in the store the other day and saw a man spend $20 on lottery tickets. Not just one big Lotto Ticket or something, oh no! He bought 20 $1 tickets! 20 of them! You should’ve seen how long this strip of tickets was!

Now this guy didn’t look rich or anything – in fact, he looked just the opposite; dirty clothes, unkempt hair, ragged pants hanging down, etc. I mean, he certainly didn’t look like he could afford to waste $20 on lottery tickets to me.

But that’s when it hit me – he wasn’t expecting to lose! He had every intention on winning!

That was the difference between him and me – see, I wouldn’t do that, because I would expect to lose.

Well, I learned something from my little “Lottery Lesson” that day. I learned that different expectations bring different results.

If you expect to win, you may very well win. But if you expect to lose, you probably will lose.

So how do we apply this to bipolar disorder?

As a supporter, you have to have the attitude that you expect your loved one to get better. Otherwise, even if they do make progress, you’ll still view it in a negative way, and you won’t be very encouraging to them – when your encouragement can mean the difference to them between success and failure sometimes.

On the other hand, if you have the attitude that you expect them to get better, even their smallest advances can seem big to them because of your encouragement – and they will be spurred on to

do even bigger and better things!

The relationship between loved one with bipolar disorder and their supporter is a partnership, but

the attitude of the supporter carries so much weight. Like the man with the lottery tickets – no matter what he looked like on the outside, it was his inner attitude that counted. And his attitude was that he expected to win!

Now if you, as a supporter, can have that same attitude, that expectancy that you’re going to win

(that you and your loved one are going to beat the bipolar disorder) – how can you NOT win?

You can apply this principle to any problem related to your loved one’s bipolar disorder. If they are mood swinging, and it’s getting to you, your positivity may bring them out of it.

Here’s what I mean:

Larry and Susan were married. Larry had bipolar disorder. He couldn’t help it – sometimes his moods would swing, and not on purpose, either! It was his disorder that would make him change

his moods even when he didn’t want to. He didn’t know what to do about it. He only knew that he didn’t like the “self” he was when his bipolar was acting up, and the way his mood changing caused him to treat Susan. He might get into an irritable mood, and the next thing you know, he’d be picking a fight with Susan over nothing! Or he would get into a dejected mood and totally withdraw.

But Susan was a good supporter. She watched her attitude. She had a winning attitude, just like the guy with the lottery ticket. No matter what kind of mood Larry would get into, Susan’s would remain constant, because she believed that Larry would get better. She had learned to separate Larry from his bipolar disorder, too, so she could get mad at the disorder and not Larry.

After awhile of Susan always having this positive attitude, this winning attitude, no matter what kind of mood Larry was in or what he did, Larry was won over. He asked Susan to teach him how to be more like her.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave