"We all got a ticket to ride the crazy train" said a friend of mine the other day. "The only difference is our destination. Mine is OCD Control Freaksville: what's yours?"

Obviously this was said in jest, but it made me think. The crazy train is obviously my bipolar disorder, but what is my destination?

After a moment it occurred to me that maybe I could choose my destination. Would it be the town of Ordered Management or the country hamlet of Calm Acceptance? If I have faith in the railway system and look far, far ahead into the misty hills of the future, could I opt for the lofty heights of Healing or Cure?

The thing about the railway track and the train on it is that it never runs straight. It curves and carves its way through the countryside and towns; now clattering across bridges, now flirting with the seashore with the sunshine sparking diamonds from the waves; now plunging into the darkest tunnel - so long one feels the ultimate destination must be Hades itself – and then out into the daylight again, but now with a whole mountain between it and any recognisable destination.

So a lot of this journey has to be fuelled by faith, and by choice.

Because there are many destinations out there and the one I'm clear I don't want to end up in, although I may have to pass through it on the journey, is that dark city of Despair.

So, fellow travellers: want to compare tickets?

Mary

A Moodscope member.