An epiphany

I met up with an old friend who used to be a counsellor at a service I attended when I was first diagnosed about 11 years ago. She recalled at how disjointed and disorganised I was back then. I used to email her nearly every day in some sort of deep distress and crisis and I was seemingly trapped on the revolving door at the front of the psych ward.

She was amazed at how far I'd come, largely to being finally correctly diagnosed and treated for my mental illness. She was delighted to hear I was pursuing studies into university (she is aiming for her doctorate of psychology).

From someone who came very close to spending the rest of their lives in a residential hospital to someone who is learning how to give back to their community. It was an epiphany of sorts really. I am not the same person I once was, I've learned something about my illness, about others, about myself and about the world I live in. I learned there are some things I can change and by all means I am doing my darndest to change them. Other things are a lot more rigid and will never change, so take acceptance in bucket loads to learn to live with them. It is lifelong learning I think to reach this acceptance.

This epiphany just took a meeting with an old friend and almost 40 years lol! Imagine what I'll learn in another 40 years time!?