Acceptance of your mental illness

In the 1980’s mini series “the Bangkok Hilton” (Nicole Kidman) there is a prisoner that made this short story famous.

A Scorpion wanted to cross a river. He had no means to do so. Then he saw a frog near the riverbank. He asked the frog if he could carry him on his back across to the other side. “No cried the frog, you’ll sting me and I’ll die”. After much pleading the frog relented and trusted the Scorpion.

The Scorpion crawled onto the frogs back and was being carried across the river. Half way across the scorpion stung the frog. As the frog was dying and the scorpion was drowning the frog yelled out…”you promised me not to sting me, why did you do it”. The scorpion in his final breath said …”because it’s in my nature”…

Many people are born with defects. “Defects” meaning flaws away from a 100% healthy baby. We see some born without limbs yet, they know no other way, they don’t know the feeling of having those limbs. They adapt as best they can. Some even succeed in painting with their toes or graduating from university and many other achievements- just like us. With mental illness I suggest we don’t accept our illness as easily, why?. We are likely born with it or obtained it from our upbringing.

As Stephen Fry said “If I return reincarnated, I want my bipolar to be included as it is a part of me”.(paraphrasing). Some of us older sufferers have grown so accustomed to our illness, regardless of its unpredictability, that we accept it is in our DNA just like hair colour. However, many of us go through life never accepting our illness. We dream of one day a magic wand will brush over us and we will be “normal”. How can we change this?

We can start the change with realising that we are “normal” because we were born with our condition. That makes us “natural”. We can accept that we have symptoms that are on the extreme side of normal, our reactions are over the top or our sadness is too emotional and too long in length whereby to fit into society where the masses are, we need medication and therapy.

Accepting ourselves for who we are is an important jump forward in our lives. A scorpion will always be a scorpion and a frog, a frog. A frog can only grow enough wisdom to refrain from danger enough to survive but his nature will remain. If he does not obtain such minimal wisdom his species perishes. He will always be tempted to be obliging and kind to risk his well being because he knows no other way. He must accept being the frog he is, but at the same time learn survival skills. His nature is who his is and always will be…

Try to improve yourself always, but accept yourself for who you are. That approach is a state of mind that is far easier to obtain than waiting for that magic wand to appear...

WK