How I deal with it.
First, a short autobiography.I'm bipolar II, very rapid cycling. Diagnosed in the early nineties. I am a retired military sergeant, with subsequent careers in corrections, and as a school bus driver. I've been married three times, widowed once at nineteen, and divorced twice. I've just left a long term relationship due to her gambling addiction and the financial/emotional havoc involved. I don't do drama. At 59, I've discovered that in relationships I was a "nice guy". I have the ability and desire to adapt to a relationship rather than set standards for one. This results, after a while, in resentment toward both my partner and the relationship. I've walked out twice, without warning, and never looked back. The first was a twenty year marriage, the second was a ten year longterm relationship. After realizing that I was the fatal part of the relationship, I have built walls around myself. I've come to the conclusion that since I am biologically irrelevant, older, and have yet to find someone who laughs in the same language as me, I will resist enmeshing myself in a new relationship. I don't "date", I don't know how. I haven't the patience or interest in learning to read "signals" from women. I don't drink. The only drugs I use are those prescribed, and I have the enviable circumstance of no responsibilities, the ability to pick up and travel where I wish, and the freedom to explore any option I choose. The downside is that I have no ambition, no drive, and no direction. Focus is difficult, I have all the toys I want, and now that I have them, I don't play with them. Peers describe me as mediocre with occasional flashes of brilliance. Women have described me as kind, attentive, gentle, loving, and in the end a dirty rotten sonofabitch. Currently I am a happy underachiever. That leads to my quandary. In life, I was a go getter, a doer, and invincible. When I cycled down, I was depressed, with suicidal or impending mortality ideations, and generally felt worthless. I now accomplish nothing, and don't care.
APA Reference
(2009, August 25). How I deal with it., HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, November 13 from https://www.healthyplace.com/support-blogs/myblog/How-I-deal-with-it.