Real Stability

"Stability is not immobility."
- Klemens Von Metternich1

The mainstream meaning of stability in depression, mania, hallucination, and delusion is to be in remission of symptoms for an extended period with the goal of being symptom free forever.2 While I side with those who believe traditional tools including medicine and therapy are valid, I take issue with the goal itself. A stability that has us living a diminished life in fear of a relapse is only the beginning, not the end point, on the path from "disorder" to "in order." If stability is the goal, we need to redefine what it means and how we measure it.

When we look at the physical world, the dictionary defines stable as "not likely to give way or overturn; firmly fixed."3 Stability means to be able to perform the intended action under duress. A race car with a low center of gravity is more stable while turning a corner than a minivan with a heavy load on the roof. While turning a corner, the driver of a minivan has to be careful so as not to flip the vehicle over. The race car driver needs to be careful too, but he has a vehicle built for speed and agility, not for lumbering through a parking lot loaded down with camping gear on the roof.

In the mental world, the dictionary defines stable as "sane and sensible; not easily upset or disturbed."4 Since the extremes of depression, mania, hallucination, and delusion typically accompany clear signs of being "upset or disturbed," it is understandable how freedom from symptoms became the standard definition of stability. Unfortunately, it forces us into a predicament--if our condition changes in the slightest bit, we become unstable because we cannot function under the duress. We live in fear that our condition might "turn the corner" and we will "flip out."

If you park the race car and the minivan in the garage they are both stable, but that is not the purpose of having a car. The same can be said of people. It might be necessary at first to achieve such a limited stability because anything else is too dangerous, but it can hardly be considered the endpoint of treatment. I don't want to park my mind in the garage.

Having no highs or lows isn't stable, it is boredom! We need contrast in our lives. The problem is not highs and lows, it is our inability to have wisdom guided reactions to them. Stability needs to be seen as a range where our reactions are still within our control.

Real Stability means to maintain control in an ever wider range of experience. Over time we can gain stability in a range of highs and lows that would be considered "normal" for people without our condition. With guidance, effort, and wisdom, we can even reach a level of stability beyond that of "normal" people. Some of us can even achieve stability across the entire range of the bipolar condition and live an extraordinary life.

Those who have carefully considered their experience with depression can validate the idea of stability. When we were first depressed it seemed unbearable. As we experience it more and more it gets easier to handle, at least at lower levels. As we experience deeper depressions, our ability to handle the lesser ones becomes stronger. Eventually we realize that the level that was first unbearable is now very easy to handle.

Eventually, we get to the point that our understanding is greater than most. When others experience situations that depress them, they turn to us because we are comfortable talking about it. Depression becomes our expertise. We can bring real stability to our own lives as well as help others to better understand their condition and become stable too.

Everyone gets depressed from time to time. It is very normal at lower levels and we understand that without the contrast of ups and downs life would be dull. Sooner or later we all have a situation that causes deep feelings of depression. The loss of a loved one or another great tragedy can put us in a state of true situational depression that lasts weeks or months, sometimes even years.

Those of us who have clinical depression go through a much deeper state. It is so much more intense on every level that it is impossible for those who have not had the experience to even comprehend how intense it is. Although most choose to avoid such states at all costs, those of us who choose to learn from the experience instead of just avoiding it gain insight that makes it easier for us.

The same trajectory of increased stability happens with hallucinations and delusions for those of us who choose to understand them. We find that they no longer control our reactions and we can remain stable in states that would completely disable others.

Mania is much more difficult for many to understand. As their experience has been horrible, they are in such fear of mania that they refuse to accept even the possibility of maintaining stability while manic. In my talks I can go into great detail about depression, but if I mention even the slightest mania some people get very upset. So terrible are their experiences and so horrifying the stories of manic people causing havoc that they consider it dangerous to even mention the possibility of getting it under control.

Nonetheless, many people have found themselves capable of maintaining stability in low levels of mania. They have developed the awareness and necessary support system to help them avoid the higher levels that they cannot control. Just as there are levels of freedom including those that most would consider impossible, it is within us to be able to get depression, mania, hallucination, and delusion under control in much greater levels than you can imagine.

Limiting our life to a very narrow range of emotions and experiences in fear that we may have a relapse is not stability at all. "Avoidance therapy" will never "cure" mania or depression, it will only force you into a diminished life with constant fear of relapse. Only by gaining insight, developing freedom from the dictates of our conditions, and finding real stability can we begin to live an advantaged life of Self-Mastery and Equanimity.

  1. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/klemens_von_metternich/
  2. Perlis, R.H.,Evidence-based strategies for achieving treatment goals in bipolar disorder: A review and synthesis of contemporary treatment guidelines., Journal of Current Psychosis and Theraputic Reports, V 1, N2 December, 2003, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
  3. New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition,
  4. Ibid
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