The seventh 80/20 theme I would like to comment on is how we can learn from a relapse. I was very interested to find this topic a focal point of Mike’s DVD, as it is such an important skill for anyone with a mental illness – and yet it is rarely discussed.

Speaking from my experience with bipolar, I can especially understand the importance of breaking the cycle of relapse. From the beginning of 2002 to June of 2005 I experienced nearly 20 major shifts in mood, from baseline to depressed to manic and back again. In the early days I would fall from mild hypomania back into severe depression, and in each case I was forced to come to terms with (and learn from) my relapse.

Of course it is never easy to live through relapse. There is frustration, a loss of hope, anger, confusion and fear – and to feel all of these emotions is entirely normal. The key is to resist wallowing in these emotions and allowing them to persist, as they can quickly change from a healthy way of processing trauma to a negative, even corrosive force.

The most effective state of mind for me was to focus on the fact that I had been well before, and therefore I could be again. Or rather, I would be again. By setting my attention on the plain fact that I had not always been ill, I was able to rebuild my hope for my ability to recover. And I always believed that eventually, the recovery-relapse-recovery cycle would end as it does in this sentence: with recovery.

Be well,
Jason Finucan