Bipolar the Good Life: Breaking the Chains of Depression & Mental Illness

By Daniel Marin

It was the worst of times.

I was alone and afraid.

I wandered the streets of the city in search of nothing.

I felt shackled by the invisible chains of depression and mental illness.

My new "gods" were fear and paranoia.

I worshipped them day & night.

My soul screamed out to a deaf universe...

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Oct 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647735135

Book preview

CHAPTER 1 God, Am I Really Crazy? The Secret Of Change

During my time of trauma and drama, I felt like I had been abducted and taken prisoner. Eventually, God rescued me at just the right time.

Here then, is my personal story.

It was the worst of times.

Mental illness had re-created me.

I was no longer who I once was.

I was alone.

I was afraid.

For the first time in my life,

I felt chained and shackled

by something that I could not see or touch.

I was now living in La La Land.

I wandered the streets of the city, in search of nothing.

My clothes were dirty and stained, and I didn’t care.

It was a case of extreme identity theft.

My new gods were Fear and Paranoia.

I worshipped them day and night.

My soul cried out to a deaf universe:

Would somebody help me, please?

God, am I really crazy?

I had arrived at the gates of a living hell.

Now there was silence.

That was then, and this is now.

Over a period of time, and with several bumps and bruises along the way, I discovered that I could change my life by doing three things:

Seeking Wisdom

Avoiding Distractions

Applying the Secret of Change

Today, I believe that you, the reader, can transform your life by doing the same three things.

You are welcome to take action whenever you are ready.

Seeking Wisdom

Despite the emotional pain and torment I have gone through, I have learned a few things about wisdom along the way. Please allow me to share a few thoughts which helped me, and will hopefully help you in your pursuit of peace and freedom.

Wisdom is crying out in the streets. You can find it just about anywhere.

Seek wisdom, and you will surely find it.

Avoiding Distractions

Like wisdom, you can find distractions just about anywhere. Distractions come in the form of people, places, and things that get in the way of our prosperity. They can entice us to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Distractions can fan the flames of our selfish desires and cause us to change the course of our lives.

The Secret of Change

Fast forward. It’s January, 2021, and many people are hard at work trying to keep their New Year’s resolutions. Some will succeed in reinventing themselves because they refuse to stay the same. Still others are ready to improve their lives because they have discovered the secret of change.

The secret of change is to go from knowing what to do, to doing it, with little or no hesitation. Most of us already know what to do. We already know what is right and what is wrong. We just need to do the right thing.

Once again, the secret of change is:

going from knowing what to do, to doing it,

with little or no hesitation.

Let me assure you: it is far more important to do a lot, instead of think a lot, once you believe that something is right and it does not harm you or anyone else.

I can tell you with great certainty that over-thinking can get in the way of our healing and prosperity. Consider this: every day, all over the world, countless people are willing to take action to accomplish what they must accomplish. These people of action are the Doers of the world. Please understand, when you decide that you must accomplish something, you are no longer telling yourself I might, or I think I can, or Maybe someday I will. No way! When you reach the point of "I must get this done, you just get it done! Game over! So... when you are ready to go from knowing what to do, to doing it, you too can become an honorary member of the World Society of Doers."

Congratulations.

So, here’s an important question.

Are you ready to tell yourself that you must break the chains that are holding you back from enjoying a better life today? Some of you may be ready, and some of you may not—and that’s okay. No worries.

Please consider the following: If the Doers of the world can change their lives by simply doing what must be done, then why can’t we, the emotionally wounded, do the same thing? I am 100% convinced we can. Once we become Doers instead of Dreamers, we can begin to change our lives.

After all I have been through, I now believe that just about anyone can break the chains of depression and mental illness. Perhaps all we need is a compelling reason to do so. What would be your reason for breaking the chains that are holding you down right now? An example might be, I’m just so tired and fed up with my life, I want to change it! Is that you? Are you fed up with your life today?

If you are at a turning point moment, then I would like to invite you to purposely move your problems out of the way and replace them with something better. In the big picture, it’s really that simple. The fact is, replacing harmful behavior with desirable behavior has been going on since the beginning of mankind. Once I started replacing what I didn’t want with things that I did want, I began to have more peace in my life.

Peace is a beautiful thing.

So, if you don’t mind, I would like to encourage you to have a little peace and happiness today. I believe that peace and happiness are already living inside of us. Everyone has tasted the fruit of peace and happiness before. So, since we already know what peace and happiness are about, we can surely experience them again.

Yes, I am suggesting that just maybe it’s time for you to check out of Hotel Misery and check into Hotel Prosperity.

During my days of trauma and drama, I eventually discovered that my messed-up thinking was hurting me more than it was helping me. This revelation made me realize that in order to have a better life, I would have to change the story that I was telling myself. Over time, I was fortunate to learn about something called self-talk. Self-talk is the story we tell ourselves each and every day of our lives. Here’s what’s incredible about self-talk. If we tell ourselves that we are going to have a good day,