Hi, how is your day going? I hope it’s a great one.<\/p>\n
You know about my little goddaughter, right? Well, I think one of the greatest toys they ever invented for kids was building blocks. Yep, building blocks. Simple. Easy. But it can keep them busy for hours!<\/p>\n
She builds these tall towers out of her building blocks, and you should see her go. Nothing interrupts her concentration when she is building one of her towers. Of course, sometimes the<\/p>\n
blocks fall down before she’s completed her tower, but she doesn’t abandon her mission! She just starts over and starts building her tower again! She builds it as high as she is, sometimes, before it falls!<\/p>\n
But you should see her when she’s building it\u2026 She is focused\u2026 She is quiet\u2026 No distractions\u2026 She is concentrating\u2026 And she is persistent.<\/p>\n
That’s the name of the game when it comes to bipolar disorder, too \u2013 you must be persistent if you want to get stable or help your loved one to reach stability.<\/p>\n
Do you have persistence when it comes to your bipolar disorder? When your “tower” falls down sooner than expected, do you just start building it again?<\/p>\n
Like say you’re on a new medication. And it has some side effects. Do you abandon it completely? Or do you call the doctor and tell him about the side effects so that he can tell you what to do?<\/p>\n
What if somebody says something you don’t like at your support group? Do you quit going altogether, scrapping the whole notion of going to a support group just because one person said something you didn’t like? Or do you have the persistence you need to keep going to that support group no matter what, because you need it?<\/p>\n
What if you do go into an episode? Do you feel like it’s the end of the world? Like you’ll never get better? Like all your work toward stability (like my goddaughter building her tower) was all for nothing? Do you just give up? Or do you latch onto your persistence with everything you’ve got and build that tower \u2013 fight that bipolar episode?<\/p>\n
You’ve got to have persistence if you’re going to beat this thing. It’s not always going to be easy.<\/p>\n
But you CAN do it!<\/p>\n
Well, I have to go!<\/p>\n
Your Friend,<\/p>\n
Dave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi, how is your day going? I hope it’s a great one.<\/p>\n
You know about my little goddaughter, right? Well, I think one of the greatest toys they ever invented for kids was building blocks. Yep, building blocks. Simple. Easy. But it can keep them busy for hours!<\/p>\n
She builds these tall towers out of her building blocks, and you should see her go. Nothing interrupts her concentration when she is building one of her towers.<\/p>\n