What is your mission?
A question of today from WordPress is ‘What is your mission?’
When I saw it, I decided to reflect on it in writing, as it’s a question I ask myself daily.
What is my mission?
You see, I really want to contribute to our humanity and in a good way. And I think, I have a lot of things to say that could help other people like me, leading a life with a severe mental health diagnosis.
I have bipolar disorder (the diagnosis varies, but it isn’t the point) because of my vulnerability to psychoses. I had a few of them, across two different countries, The Netherlands and England. These were amazing, beautiful experiences, but smashed once I would end up in a hospital. I would be given killing dose of an anti-psychotic, and then released back into the community as an invalid.
And yet, I would recover each time fully, and usually stop the medication which was prescribed to me, in order to lead my life as I wanted it. I wanted it all: a good job, a nice man, raising my son, socializing with friends, and writing, which is my biggest passion. It was all impossible on the doses the psychiatrists prescribe when you end up in a psychiatric hospital.
Nowadays I do take my medication as prescribed, thanks to a brilliant psychiatrist I met where I am now – in Friesland. My doctor found something that seems to keep me in balance while also causing almost no side-effects. This precarious balance I am determined to keep.
And I am also determined to continue living my life to the fullest, while also hoping that others with similar experience to mine, don’t loose their inner joy out of despair.
They say that psychosis is a terrible thing. They say that severe mental illness is chronic, and that with a severe mental health diagnosis, you can’t have a happy life.
I disagree with this. I think that everything is possible in this life. Even with a severe mental ‘illness’ one can lead a life full of meaning and joy.
It is possible.
Please, don’t take it as arrogance, but look at me. Despite the fact that I had several psychoses, I managed to move across countries, get a PhD in England, give birth to my wonderful son, have friends around the world, and enjoy my job, and life in general.


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