Sarah Bredin writes:

Diagnosis

D

Designed to help you understand your mind, not to limit or label you.

I

Identity: yours is still your own, still yours to nourish, furnish, be proud of, and invest in.

A

Adapt, what else would you be thinking of doing?

G

“I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” Samuel Beckett

Go on, get some fresh goals together and get on with your life before you lose your way.

N

New meds, new rules, new memories, new perspectives, new insight, new can be the best thing that ever happened.

O

One life, still ongoing: don’t waste valuable time waiting for the meds to kick in; a watched pot would be much better off going for a walk or making a milestones of recovery plan.

S

Serialised: like all the best stories, (the box sets anyway!), your path from diagnosis to liberation will happen in stages, but there will be some undeniably solid satisfaction climbing every step on that stairs.

I

Don’t even think about being an island. You might believe the thoughts and feelings you’re having right now are so loathsome and pathetic that surely nobody can relate, but they can, and you guys should be talking to each other. Support groups, online chat groups, out-patient courses: there are people you can laugh about this stuff with!

S

Strength: racehorses trained at altitude, runners with weights on their ankles: burden-carrying is a challenge that increases strength and performance, so get ready to recognise a better you than ever before as you make your way up that stairs.

“Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t see the whole stairs.” Martin Luther King

Diagnosis BSM 15

Sarah Bredin