On being healthier, happier and bipolar: perspectives on renewal and recovery on Steve Raith Book
by Steve Raith

This is a short work about my personal experiences with mental illness in life as well as the long period of time I have spent working with youth whose life experience was far beyond anything I have ever experienced as relates to the severity of each traumatic event that many of these residents had lived through and the much higher number of events that they have experienced as well as the number of years that an unbelievable amount of abuse, trauma or neglect was allowed to continue until they were eventually taken from the environment that was harming them. Many times this was only the beginning as the struggle then started to address the consequences of this history so that they wouldn't be a threat or danger to themselves or others at the very least, and might be able to process the trauma they lived through to reach a point of acceptance for what had happened, lowering the raw emotional charge that came to surface when triggers reactivated memories of these experiences as they were trying to live their lives, believing everything had been resolved only to find it still held control over their emotions and sense of wellbeing, causing them to either become violently reactive to those around them, or excessive down or depressed to the point where they struggled with taking pleasure in everyday activities that should have improved their mood level. Many of these individuals discovered drugs whose high or elevated level of pleasure or relief often brought a sense of emotional well-being that they had never experienced before in their lives which caused many of them to self-medicate themselves becoming addicted to substances that might help to relieve the pain they were feeling but did nothing to solve the problems they were having inside their lives, but, in fact, often created even more issues around their personal relationships at home, schools or broader society, and often causing physical problems to their bodies even if there weren't legal issues.

However, this short piece also talked about how someone might stop the trauma process when they are able to find a safe and healthy environment where they might talk and process many of the life events that had happened to them, trying to come to terms with it in their own individual way, trying to accept that it should never had happened but it did, by analyzing and putting into words some aspects of the trauma which might be even more basic or fundamental than the higher level of cognition in symbolic thought or language and words, a person can often lower the emotional charge that the event brings to the conscious mind. This work talks about the process of better understand why triggers might be bringing the PTSD to fore, or acting like a social scientist looking for cause and effect relationships between the individual and their response to certain environment events. Which provides the individual with increased ability to bring some control over their emotions, so that those emotions aren't driving or exerting excessive control over their lives. I discussed the ideas around self-care where a person takes time for themselves to help improve their sense of wellbeing, for someone who doesn't necessarily struggle with a mental illness it might be a hobby they enjoy doing, playing an instrument, doing something special with your children, significant other or pets, gardening, working on restoring a car, making home improvements, writing poetry, walking, or playing sports, developing your spirituality. The list is endless being whatever it is that interests that particular person. These moments of self-care become coping skills that can help us deal with stress or intrusive thoughts about events that are much better left in the past when the immediate moment is healthy and safe. A person can often turn to these activities to improve their mood when memories come up from the unconscious mind eliciting negative thoughts or ideas or causing the person to feel anxious, down, depressed or increasing irritable. A person can practice coping skills like taking a shower, listening to music, taking a walk or doing what they normally do during moments of self-care until the emotinal charge about thoughts of the past diminishes and the individual returns to baseline.