Ups and Downs - Part One

Take a stroll through the Psalms and you will get a profound experience of emotional “ups and downs”. There are Psalms that end with the writer in an emotional low place. Other Psalms reveal the author starting our in a “down” place but by the end of Psalm he has moved to a really good emotional place. The Psalmist is honest about his thinking and emotions. He seems to fully accept the emotional “ups and downs” of his life.

We are no different than the writer of Psalms when it comes to experiencing emotional “ups and downs.” Personally, I can dip up and down emotionally through out the day. I’m assuming you have experienced this as well.

The mental illness recovery journey requires we travel the path of “ups and downs”.   For many of us our “ups and downs” can be more intense and severe than a person who does not deal with mental illness. All of us have an emotional “window of tolerance”. Think of this as the range of your emotions. There is a point when emotions become painful, all-consuming and intolerable. This is called being outside your “window of tolerance.”

If one goes above the “window of tolerance” you get intense anxiety and/or panic attacks. On the other hand if you goes to low you’ll encounter depression and despair. It may be helpful to read back through the Psalms and notice how the Psalmist navigates in and out of his emotional “window of tolerance.”

Here are a couple of practices that have helped me with my “ups and downs.” I’ve learned to accept my emotional state whether “up or down.” Early in my mental health journey I would “should” all over my ‘self,” like “I shouldn’t be feeling this!” or “Good Christians shouldn’t be having this kind of experience!” The “shoulding” only made matters worse for me. I gradually learned to accept that I really was in the throes of painful emotions.

Also I learned to practice self-compassion during these times. At first this was a radical idea for me because I had learned at home and church to ignore my self or be punitive toward my self. A place to begin is to speak kindly to your self, like you would to a friend that is hurting. It may sound like this, “This really is hard right now. The anxiety is really high. It’s OK to experience this. I’ll spend extra time tending me today.” This may take some practice because often we have learned to be vindictive with our selves.

In the next blog we’ll continue investigating the path of emotional “ups and downs.”