Raising Bipolar

I have been wanting to go to one of these for months.   And yet I never went.

I was nervous to go.  Being honest, it all sounded a bit depressing.  No, more than a bit depressing.  Really depressing.  A bunch of depressed people sitting around discussing depression?  Yikes.   What could be worse, really?

Well, last night I had reached my breaking point.  Rye and I had had a very long day and I needed to vent.  I needed to talk to some people that knew what the heck I was talking about and quite honestly I was starting to get depressed so I figured at this point I had nothing to lose and would probably fit in just fine.

So, I went.  There was a meeting not too far from me and I bit the bullet and went.

When I got there I was leary.  It took me forever to find the meeting room.  Then I got there too early and there was no one there.  Then when there were people there there weren’t that many.  And at first glance they didn’t seem too perky.

The meeting started.  People shared.  I listened.  I shared.  I heard people’s stories.  I felt the emotion.   I watched them care for one another.  I heard them bare their souls.   I saw the support.  I felt the love.  It was incredible.

And exactly what I needed.

I told them about Rye and his struggles and my feelings about it all.  All of it.  In a nutshell, of course, as one must be mindful of time.  And they were wonderful.  They reached out to me.  They didn’t judge me.  A few of the men told me that they knew at 12 or 13 that they were bipolar.  One man said at 13 he knew he was an alcoholic  but that he didn’t know about bipolar until much later in life.  They talked about medicating, not medicating, doctors, hospitals, ups, downs, good sides, bad sides, all of it.   Some of them had had great success in life but still discussed their struggles.  Some were on disability and discussed that journey.  There was a whole range of people.  But they all shared the same emotions.  They same base issues.   And they all treated each other as equals and with dignity, respect and an outpouring of kindness.

To say it was moving would be an understatement.

So, I have found a new part of my week.  The local DBSA meeting.  I left that meeting feeling like a 500 pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  I had never met these people before and yet I could talk to them about everything.  Everything.

Here is the website if you would like to find and try a meeting near you.

http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home&cvridirect=true

I can’t tell you how wrong I was with my initial fears of going to this meeting.  It was the furthest thing from depressing I have experienced in a long time.   In fact, if anything, it was the best thing I have experienced in a long time.  It was hopeful.  And loving.  And it was time.