Mood Swings and Creative Persons

Bipolar are Just Cross Legged Persons

                  

 It is by default that all creative persons have frequent mood swings. It is the price they pay for the gift of God. The persons affected by their mood swing viz. their family members and friends, reconcile with them with a heavy heart without any mention of it.

1. It’s not a Psychiatric problem.  You are lost in a jugglery of words having complicated interpretations of day-to-day words like anxiety, depression, euphoria that would sound as serious psychological disorders. It is not a sickness so there is no remedy for it. Any type of medication could be addictive. So it is better to make use of both the types of mood.

2. It mostly has a duration, like a pendulum or a swing; the velocity and duration have a fixed pattern. One can even maintain a diary to identify the pattern of cycle of occurrence of swing. Water is one of the major constituents of our body. Like oceans have tides due to phases of the moon, the mood swings are like tides governed by our inner moon. Remember IQ84 by Murakami. The whole book revolves round the theory of  “Two Moon”. The Author has given very fine symbolic narration of situations under which the characters see two moons in the sky.

3. The intensity of the swing is very important. It may depend on whether you resist or give up to it. You have to evolve a strategy to win it over. The awareness is a useful instrument. Everyone is best judge of his mood if he or she is aware of it. The famous book “An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness” by Kay Redfield Jamison is good for those who are comfortable with technical details of the things.

4. Unfortunately, much literary fiction about characters suffering from mood swing is not written. May be because most of the writers also suffer from it so they take it as a normal human behaviour. Only those who do not utilize the energy transformation of mood swing fall in the trap and slide unrestrained.

5. One may think that swings happen for no reason. But it is not so. Sometimes the activity that sets the ball rolling is apparent, often it is hidden. A scene in a movie, a dialogue or even a word from a friend or relative, a novel that you are reading, a dream, an innocent remark or even a compliment may have a connotation in your mind to open the floodgates that would drown you in emotions.

6. Benevolent and generous people are more prone to mood swings. These qualities need to be nurtured. If one constantly ignores the impulses of generosity it leads to self-condemnation or self-pity. Little effort is required to pull the strength and go out in search of a person who needs your help. If he is not on the first corner around, he is definitely on the second.

7. The creativity has numerous outlets. The writers, painters, musicians, dancers, architects and designers are popular forms of creative arts, but the list is endless. Technology has expanded the span up to infinity.

8. Three Boxes Theory: We know what is to be found in the two boxes on the right and left (being Bipolar), but the middle box is the surprise. Something different is always coming out of it. That’s the impulsive box, about which no prediction can be made. Society craves for predictability; mature and prudent people always condemn anything unpredictable. They have no objection so far as someone is diagnosed as BP and is taking treatment for it; they only want to snatch away the middle box. 

9. Moods have no gender bias. They affect male and females equally. Some people are able to face it squarely, overcome it and are known for their creativity. We know that many creative and talented people have ruined their life since they were not able to cope up with their mood swings. Females may pretend a weakness to seek support and attention and male pretend to be strong and supportive for the same reason. It is a myth that Females are more emotional and thus more prone to mood swings. In patriarchal society male has an ulterior motive to  serve by keeping woman weak.

10. The role of chemistry has been yet not fully explored. The secretions of the endocrine glands are called Hormones, which are chemicals. The secretion is an involuntary function so human beings are at the vagaries of the mood. The science of Yoga describes six plexus or chakras that control the working of endocrine glands. If the process is learnt under guidance of a teacher, you will surely be a master of your moods.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

 Author, Spiritual Counselor