Riding the Updraft

Living with BiPolar disorder is… interesting, at the very least. You can spend days in a slump that doesn’t make any logical sense where you can’t focus, you don’t have any energy; You’re depressed, and it fucking sucks. Your productivity tanks, and you’re just trying to keep yourself going as best you can.

But then! The depression finally breaks, and you’re able to do things again! But it isn’t quite enough, you’re still behind on everything you need to do, and there are more and more things piling up that you just can’t keep up with. When a manic episode strikes at this point, it almost feels like a godsend.

Whenever this happens, I think of it as an updraft. You get a big burst of energy so you can finally keep up with what you need to do, and you get a bunch of projects started or you make progress on a bunch of the ones you’ve already got. I try to ride these moments as long as I can, especially now that my job is picking up but I still have more and more things I want to make, creatively.

After an updraft or two this week, I have: Named a Patron only reward for my Patreon and finished the first entry, created a rough prototype for an RPG, written this article, and written some questions for an interview I’m conducting tomorrow morning. This has probably been on of my more productive manic episodes.

As stressful as living with BiPolar can be, there are a few perks when you get lucky. And sure, you have to keep an eye on those perks because they’re just as likely to stab you in the back as help you out (This week has been a constant roller coaster of productivity and blinding rage for me). But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time to be proud of the things you managed because of your BiPolar.