I am experiencing freedom from bondage. And my mind usually serves me.

“While the mind is meant to serve us, one can get lost in the maze of its delusions.”

Those words jump off the page at me, glaring like a colorful, bold neon sign.

For many years, my experience was the inverse. I was enslaved to my mind by my obsessions, ruminations, and distorted thoughts that resulted from my Bipolar Disorder.

Torturous, worrisome, shaming thoughts would get stuck in my head and my mind would attack me with them over and over again. Immiserating and debilitating as these assaults were, I was powerless to protect myself from my brain -which had become my captor and tormentor.

By God’s grace, the help of loving professionals and peers, and, eventually, AA, I was able to acquire tools like CBT, awareness, observing my own thoughts, prayer, verbalizing these thought to others, medication, helping others, and more.

I am grateful that today, with effort and with help from fellow sufferers and the Higher Power of my understanding, I am experiencing freedom from bondage. And my mind usually serves me.

Inage Credit: MyKa McKinney