My partner and I were recently talking about coding and how language, and understanding language is almost like learning to code.
He argued that you can’t apply maths to language and that it was more ‘variable’ than code, which is true, but the perspective of language as a learned coding system has stuck with me ever since that one conversation.It got me to thinking – there’s an optimal way to do everything – or maybe several optimal ways. And there’s no one universal truth – instead, there’s what we make of our world and how we interact within it.
A while ago now, we changed the slogan of the site to ‘Live, Thrive, Survive’ – a three-step mantra for anyone diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
First you have to learn to live. It’s not the easiest part of the process – in fact, in many ways those first steps are the hardest. Learning to view your ‘disorder’ as an integral part of how you interact with the world and, more than that, learn to live within the boundaries that presents. This first step also includes adjusting to your medications and learning to cope with your therapies.
Thrive – once you’ve learned to live with bipolar disorder, and have adjusted to your meds, and other therapies, finding the essential ‘you’ and nursing it. Many with any disease feel like that is the sum of their parts, where, we believe that everyone is unique, and we encourage people to find that essential uniqueness and flourish within it. You may want to take up a hobby, or learn something new.
Survive – Life isn’t all about us and it isn’t easy. Learning to survive when buffeted by hard times is an essential coping mechanism.
And that’s a process – one that I talk about in more depth in my book ‘Pictures in the Dark’.
What do you think?
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
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