A bipolar Blog

I love Manchester

I have come to the conclusion that my beloved Manchester is a Bipolar proof City. By this I mean that sometimes it’s a really fantastically happy place to live or a really depressing place to live.  Maybe the way Manchester works can reflect my current moods?

I strongly believe that if I did not live in Manchester I would suffer more. There is so much about this city that fits into my mood state. there are places I like to go when I’m depressed (if I can leave the house at all) but there are also so many opportunities to feed the manic mind. In Manchester you can walk to work with your clothes on inside out and holding a power rangers lunch box and people won’t care. They just assume you’re at bit crackers or doing something different for the day, but they don’t care. It’s what makes this great city tick. Of course you don’t have to be mad to live in Manchester, but it helps.

I have lived in Many towns and cities including London. Nowhere on earth can offer the laid back attitude to life like Manchester does.

When the recent riots happened it was gut wrenching to watch the kids destroying the city centre. There is a genuine feeling of anger and even rage that these people have done this. How dare they!

Something good came out of the riots. only 6 hours later the true Mancunian people descended on the city centre not just to help with the clean up, but also to show their love and support for this great place. We bounced back again. Stronger and more resilient than ever.

The police did a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances but I believe that the reaction of the people of Manchester was the reason a second night of violence didn’t happen.

in 1996 the IRA blew the city centre up using the biggest peace time bomb ever to explode in Europe since the war. We fought back and rebuilt the city and exceeding expectations. The Mancunian people would not let this drag us down. You can destroy our city centre as many times as you like but you will NEVER destroy Mancunian pride, Mancunian passion and Mancunian resolve. I believe that the IRA did us a massive favour in the end. It forced us to regenerate leading to massive growth for the city.

The City oozes positivity. I see Manchester as a drug. the city helps me. When I’m feeling down I jump on the metro and go into town. It always picks me up. When I’m manic I still go into town because it occupies my mind.

The recent “I love Manchester” campaign proved just how special and wonderful this place is. I can’t honestly think of another place I have visited on earth where people or so proud of where they are from. When Mancunians are out of town and asked where they are from we don’t just tell them we are from Manchester, we announce it with pride and honour. It’s such a fantastic place that people who live outside the Manchester boundary will say they are from here*. There is even a well known football team that uses the Manchester name yet is situated in a city (Salford)  just a few miles away**.

Manchester, Salford, whatever . . . this whole area lives together and has created my bipolar proof City.

*people from salford wont agree  **oh come on im a blue, I had to get this in

Positive Thinking 

So Manchester life has embedded this positive thinking strategy in my brain. It’s this positive thinking that can just about take the sting out of some of my depression periods. Unfortunately I will always go through depression but positive thinking earns me a few days at each side of the mood change.

Over a year I would say that positive thinking gives me 20 days back where I can function more normally. that’s 20 day more I can enjoy with my son, 20 days more where I can work to my full potential. It may not seem much to the outsider but for me it’s like extra life.

It’s fair to say that I have had a rough deal from life. the death of my son, the suicide of my girlfriend, Cancer, homelessness and serious physical and mental abuse from my alcoholic mum and dad when I was a kid has been enough to battle against, without the main contender for misery which is my bipolar disorder.  Yet I remain positive and have a love for life (unless I’m seriously down)

Life by its very nature throws obstacles in your way. It puts people in place who are determined to steal your dreams and be cynical of everything you do. They will put you down at every given opportunity. It can take 20 people to encourage you to follow your dream but it will only take one person to steal your dream with a cynical reaction.

If you have a dream, an ambition then what’s more important than the cynics NOT buying your story is that YOU do not buy THEIR story. These people are obstacles and they don’t count.

Nobody is perfect enough in life to have everybody agree with them and say yes to them all of the time, but nobody is that imperfect to get all no’s and rejection. Keep fighting for what you believe in.

If you listen to the dream stealers and cynics there is a danger you will end up living somebody else’s dream under their terms.

you need to experience the no’s and let downs because if you don’t experience them how can you be empathetic to others? No’s and rejection make the Yes’s and acceptance much more sweeter.

Rejoice in the no’s and tribulations they teach you patience and endurance, they make you strong, so that when your leaping from mountain to mountain and hit a valley, you’re not wiped out in the valley, because when you’re in the valley you can look up and remember the view.

everything you need for success in life is already burns within you, if your believe if something is big enough the obstacles don’t count, it does not matter if you have education or no education, It does not matter where you come from in life, it does not matter who you are because if your dream is big enough the obstacles don’t count!

There is a fire inside every one of us waiting to roar. Every now and then an opportunity will come along to make your fire burn bigger and brighter. This opportunity is life. If life does not light your fire then your wood is wet and you need to make changes.

I see people come and go in my life who have had so many opportunities come their way and they have done nothing about it. If I can make a success of life, then anybody can. you just have to find out how to light your fire.

We are all going to the same place. We will all experience the same end. That experience is death. So what will you be thinking about in your final moments? Do not go through life and not live it. Don’t be laid on your death bed with regrets about not living life they way you dreamed about, you won’t get another chance.

don’t travel through life and concentrate on the bugs splattered in the windscreen, if you do that you will miss the view!

If you have a talent use it now. if you have a dream make your dream a reality, if you have a grudge bury it now and if you have love inside of you that you want to share with somebody, now is the time to do it.

My blog has been shortlisted for the Manchester Blog awards 2011. If you are enjoying my blog please vote for me. it only takes a second. Click on the purple blog awards logo on the top right of the page.  voting closes at the end of October 10th 2011 Thank you