When I was manic, I declared I’d become a human rights lawyer. This was grandiose, I wouldn’t get through law school. I do have an interest in human rights, and so I’ve been researching alternative careers in the field that don’t require law school.
It feels so good to have options around my career. In my 20s I was heart set on clinical psychologist (because I wanted to offer people better services than my friends were offered). I dropped out of undergrad, and since then, learnt that you can’t overthrow a system by being the system. So I moved on from that goal. It felt like a loss initially, but it really wasn’t.
Now I’m looking at working in local autism policy, or autism research, human rights work, or setting up a peer support company.
times are exciting again, finally .. after 6 years of stagnation after my first manic episode and not being offered any help to regain my functioning,
I now have supported housing (which is limited, for reasons) and living here and recovering from mania has shifted my mindset into thinking about the future again. This is why I call this period of time a metanoia.
It’s bloody amazing.
What helps in all this, is learning about the idea of the PDA flow. This sort of stuff is exactly my PDA flow.. and I’ve been so much more motivated to be functional in life because I know where my flow lies again. Existing disconnected from the flow seems to be a surefire way to be depressed for me. Even when I was manic, I was finding my flow again, and that was a very good thing.
PDA fae 