A Kind Word

I asked my father why he practically lived in restaurants drinking coffee and flirting with the waitresses, I’ll never forget his response, “so I can get a kind word.” Your kind word may be all a person hears in a day, week, or month.  I never really knew the importance of saying a kind word until I became a parent.  How a person day is going may be a direct reflection on how their morning is established.

My father was Bi-polar untreated, and it was rough some days. Very few people knew what it was to have Bi-polar mental issues 30 years ago and it certainly wasn’t table talk.

Untreated Bi-polar consumers experience wide mood changes at any given moment that they are unable to control and often do not recognize that their emotions are swing to-and-fro like a pendulum.

They may even think that they are going crazy at times. The moods can be irrational thinking and speeded up thought processes in the mania compiled with feelings of resilience and egocentric thinking. I could clean out our checking account in short-order when I was manic.  I had a visual limit posted on my computer telling me not to spend money over a certain amount; as a reinforcer.

The downside is depressive moods, where they are unable to get out of bed, think dark thoughts, tremendous sadness, general feeling of being unwell. They may not be able to cry or can’t stop crying. You may have witnessed people crying in their beer at social gatherings- can we say DEPRESSION!

People who are in the fall-out area… the caretakers and family members need treatment too in the form of healthy supporting relationships.  The untreated person may have a host of other issues stemming from the contact with the bipolar individual. Bi-polar runs in families, it can skip a generation or go across generational ties like a great aunt/uncle and cousin may have it as well as parent/child.

I make a practice of hugging my grandsons and telling them I love them, and that they are good boys, and wishing them to have a good day (at school). Then I ask them about their day when I see them later. These simple acts of kindness can motivate them to have a good day.

So now I am wishing for you too,

“Have a Nice Day!”