Tom Wootton on Suffering

I eventually figured out that remission will never work and it was time to try something different. As the saying goes – insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So I tried the opposite approach; thinking that perhaps I could learn to function during my inevitable future episodes and at least keep my life from falling apart each time. Everyone told me it was impossible, but I was not going to try yet another remission-based method that I knew was sure to fail.

It certainly wasn’t easy. But the more I tried and the better I understood, I was eventually able to function fully during my deepest depressions and my most extreme manias. This, of course, created an incredible difference in my ability to maintain my work, my relationships, etc. But more importantly I no longer suffer. I still feel the pain of depression in my body, my mind, my emotions, and my spiritual life, but the suffering has completely gone. I no longer suffer from mania or depression because there is no level of intensity where I suffer from it.

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You can start learning how to function during it instead of waiting in fear of the next episode. You will find next time that it is harder than you thought but with time and effort you too will understand how to function during manic and depressive states and that will change your life forever.
Tom Wootton
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