I went to a workshop recently and we looked at how mental health can affect your life in three ways:

Ability to look after oneself

Ability to get an education/work

Ability to have relationships

When people have a physical illness, it is often easy to see how their life is affected.

At first, I thought really my bipolar has not affected my life much and I am lucky I have a good quality of life.

Then I thought about since I started having serious bipolar symptoms at age 14 and then diagnosed at 16, that my ability to form romantic relationships was affected. In late teens most of my friends were dating, having boy or girlfriends while I was either alone in my bedroom or going out and ruining my reputation. Even in my 60s I find that because I did not have the experience of relationship in my late teens and early twenties, I have had difficulty with long term relationships.

I was wondering if you would be able to look at the 3 areas that mental illness/health may have affected your life. It may be something very small, something obvious or something you had not thought about.

Everyone has different experiences, and I am fortunate I can lead a full life.

So how has mental health affected your own life or those in your family? Have you been able minimise the affect your illness has on your life in some way?

Leah

A Moodscope member.