Navigating the Labyrinth: Critical Thinking as a Lifeline in Bipolar Psychosis
In the quiet moments of reflection, I often find myself grappling with the complex interplay of my mind. Living with Bipolar I with psychotic features means that my reality is sometimes a shifting landscape, where thoughts and memories are not always reliable. To navigate this challenging terrain, I have had to cultivate a rigorous practice of critical thinking, a skill that has become indispensable in my daily life.
Critical thinking, at its core, is the disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication. It is the art of questioning everything, of not taking thoughts at face value, and of seeking evidence before forming conclusions. For me, this means constantly scrutinizing my perceptions and beliefs, especially when they are influenced by the manic or psychotic episodes that accompany my condition.
My background in science, with a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in biology, provides a sturdy foundation for this critical approach. The scientific method—an iterative process of making observations, forming hypotheses, conducting experiments, and drawing conclusions — serves as a beacon of rationality. It is a systematic way of understanding the world that…
