A Bit of Conversation With A Wise Soul

She was surprised to learn from me that I had Depression. For my part, I had assumed (we all know what that spells) she had heard about it from her mother. Her response was genuine and compassionate and she once again, immediately touched my heart. She asked me,

"How old were you when you got it?"

"Looking back, I was eleven or so. That's when I first knew that what I was feeling on the inside, did not match up with, what was going on in my outside world. I understood what I should be feeling but that wasn't how I felt."

I recall thinking that I must go very gently here with my curious, youthful friend. I had not intended to initiate this discussion.

"Does it hurt?"

"Sometimes.Yes, but with medication the pain goes away."

"Do you think I have it, too?"

"No. I don't think so." I reply, easily bringing our discussion to a natural close.

Ah, that's the $10,000 bonus question! I've been asked it so many times.The truth is I've learned to be a very good "diagnostician". It's because I can be a good listener. My auditory sense, the framework about how I listen, is my strength. I listen for the tone and the substance because I'm naturally intuitive. I am a Sensitive with a highly-developed sixth sense. These are a couple of the gifts of Depression and Bipolar Dis-order. Let's just call it BPD. It's referred to as the dis-ease that confers gifts.

Don't you love what words can do? Einstein said, "Words are images and images become reality."
Welcome to my reality!