OTL Summer 2026

Scotland’s e-magazine for people living with bipolar Summer 2026

bipolarscotland.org.uk

EDITORIAL - OTL Summer Foreword - Summer I hope everyone’s enjoying the SUMMER (which should really be expressed in all caps when it’s as hot as it is right now) and keeping safe in regard to meds. A gentle reminder to my lithium-loving brethren becoming dehydrated can increase lithium levels in your blood, so drink plenty of water! Bipolar issues aside, I’m just not built for this weather on a genetic level. Roll on the winter!

Right, now that public service announce-moant is over, welcome to July’s edition of On the Level!

The theme of this issue is ‘The Future’, and as such we have a few interesting takes on what that future might hold for the bipolar community.

On P10 our CEO Maja outlines Bipolar Scotland’s new strategy. This shows how we as a charity plan to attack the problems facing people with bipolar in, well, the future! On P8, one of our regular columnists David Carr explores some alternate routes psychiatry has taken throughout the years whilst calling for the future not to be tomorrow, but rather to arrive today please. And on P16, guest columnist Dr Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots from the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh outlines how psychiatry might progress in the years to come.

Image: Vecteezy.com

All in all, it’s a great read! I hope you enjoy it.

Now I must tile my entire house and buy multiple air conditioners. See you next time!

Pete Stanton, Editor, On the Level.

CONTENTS 8

16

The Future Is Now!

David Carr takes us on a whistlestop tour through some of the more extreme hinterlands of psychiatry, featuring an appearance from Glasgow’s own controversy magnet R.D Laing.

Interesting stuff!

10 Bipolar Scotland’s New Strategy

Maja Mitchell-Grigorjeva, Bipolar Scotland’s CEO, outlines the charity’s new strategy and how we paln to fight for those with bipolar inScotland in the years to come.

ON THE LEVEL Edited by Jamie Stewart and Pete Stanton.

Please note that the views and opinions expressed in On The Level are not necessarily those of Bipolar Scotland.

Submissions: If you would like to submit a piece of writing, a photo or an idea to be considered for future issues of On The Level, please get in touch with: petes@bipolarscotland.org.uk We would also love your feedback about On The Level.

Send us an email or reach out to us on social media.

You can find us on Instagram (@bipolar_scotland) and Facebook (@bipolarscotland) ©Bipolar Scotland 2025 T: 0141 560 2050 Scottish Charity No. SC021705 E: info@bipolarscotland.org.uk Company No. 163305 bipolarscotland.org.uk

Research Corner

This month’s guest author is Dr Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots from the University of Edinburgh. In his article, Dr. Rakshasa-Loots outlines what the future of mental health reseacrh might be. .

Disclaimer: On The Level works in good faith with a range of subject-matter experts and official bodies to produce accurate and well-researched content. While every effort is made to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the information presented, errors may occasionally occur. Where necessary, we will issue corrections or clarifications.

Image: Vecteezy.com

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 03

s ’ e i m Ja y r a i D The Future is unwritten In all my years as a Bipolar person, I have had many reactions to my condition.

Acceptance, peace, understanding and love and I am so grateful for that.

But I have also found myself misunderstood and no matter how much I explain myself, some people don’t ‘Get it’.

I understand however that they don’t understand. It is complicated.

My moods are up and down, that is obvious.

But The low moods lead to low activity.

I am not always good at ‘checking in’ on people. I get called out on this. The truth is: when I am down, I do everything I can to get better. I put my phone on flight mode and listen to music and walk. It can be like a military operation to stay well.

In saying this and to be fair to myself, I always get back to people and NEVER ignore peoples messages to me.

I show how much I care for people when I am well enough to see them. I forget things Image: Vecteezy.com

and people mistake that (or choose to) with a lack of care - brain damage will do that to a person, I cannot help it.

This is however sometimes not good enough. In a world where we accept more, we understand more, Bipolar is still misunderstood.

We feel we let people down, but we are let down by people who should know better.

There is love and acceptance just around the corner, there are new people, new challenges - go forward.

Peoples lack of understanding does not evoke hate in me, I just know when to wish people well and move on.

In the future, I would like our efforts to be celebrated. I am not just Bipolar, I have brain damage, I am dyslexic and dyspraxic and have epilepsy - we all face challenges, some much bigger than mine.

I am trying my best and I imagine so are you.

Find people who accept you and be happy :) Loads of love, Jum x

Foreword Summer NOTICEBOARD Thank you to our volunteers!

A heartfelt thank you to all our amazing volunteers for your dedication, kindness, and hard work. In recognition of last month’s Volunteers Week, we thank you for your invaluable contribution and the positive differences you make every day. Your time, commitment, and generosity are truly appreciated. Thank you for everything!

The Kiltwalk season isn’t over yet!

A huge thank you to everyone who has taken part so far and helped raise vital funds for Bipolar Scotland. Your incredible support is making a real difference. There’s still time to get involved! The Edinburgh Kiltwalk takes place on 13 September. Whether you’re walking on your own or with friends, family or colleagues, every step helps us continue supporting people affected by bipolar. If you’d like to take part and fundraise for us, please get in touch – we’d be delighted to hear from you!

Image: Vecteezy.com

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Bipolar Scotland Goes to The Fringe!

Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to work alongside Bare Productions, an Edinburgh-based theatre company bringing the award winning musical Next to Normal to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Next to Normal tells the story of Diana, a wife and mother living with bipolar who is also navigating child loss. It’s a moving and thought-provoking musical that explores mental illness, grief, love, resilience and hope with honesty and compassion.

We’ve been working closely with the cast and creative team throughout the rehearsal process, meeting with them to answer questions about bipolar and share insight into what living with the condition can really be like. It has been incredibly encouraging to see just how committed everyone has been to getting it right. The cast have approached every conversation with genuine curiosity, respect and kindness, asking thoughtful questions and taking great care to ensure Diana’s experiences are portrayed as

authentically and compassionately as possible.

For us, this collaboration has been about more than simply offering advice. It’s been about helping to challenge stigma and encouraging understanding. Seeing the care and empathy that Bare Productions have brought to this show has been a real privilege, and we’re so grateful to have been part of the journey.

If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, why not add Next to Normal to your list. We think it’s a production that will stay with audiences long after the curtain falls.

Performances will run from 7th-15th August, nightly at 18:40 at Paradise Green, George IV Bridge.

As the show explores themes including mental illness, grief, loss and trauma, it can be emotionally challenging. We encourage anyone planning to attend to only see the production if they feel able to engage with these themes.

Tickets are available here: https://www. edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/nextto-normal

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David Carr

Demand the Future Now. In Glasgow’s Govanhill district there is a blue plaque commemorating the birthplace of the psychiatrist, RD Laing. A complex and mercurial figure, Laing held that madness is a sane response to an insane world. He established a therapeutic community which put patients at the centre and made the radical move of listening to them.

psychologists would identify as risk factors for depression and anxiety.

Laing is usually bracketed with the ‘antipsychiatry’ movement which holds that mental illness is a product of a sick society.

Anti-psychiatrists - though in truth not Laing so much - generally come from a Marxist-inflected angle. The root problem as they see it is ‘alienation.’

In their radical critique, the very way that we diagnose and categorise mental ill health is arbitrary. It is heavily influenced

by DSM-5 categorisations which are more to do with box ticking by the US health insurance industry than with clinically useful pathologies. Worse - the profit motive in Big Pharma incentivises psychiatrists to diagnose illnesses to match the cures they sell. Ever more semi-effective remedies are invented to treat symptoms whose underlying cause is life under late capitalism.

Marxism 101. Most people put work into making things that they do not own. The things we make and the way we make them are not under our control, do not reflect us, are meaningless to us. Our time is not our own and the profits from our labour are enjoyed by others. We are alienated from our own activities. Alienation permeates from the individual and throughout a society which is based around providing wealth for just a few.

Clydeside shipyard worker Jimmy Reid gave a seminal Glasgow University rectoral address on alienation, which he said gives the modern rat race society its defining character. ‘It is the feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies.’ The conditions that Reid describes are precisely those that clinical

Some anti-psychiatry theorists would claim that this dynamic explains the whole of what we term mental illness. The label of ‘mentally ill’ is simply what we apply when people cannot cope psychologically with the demands of life.

I see where they are coming from - but I don’t go all the way. What the antipsychiatrists miss is that some illnesses bipolar disorder - are organic diseases, of an order more serious and enduring than life woes. Far from seeing over-diagnosis, we see long delays in getting the right help.

The ‘pharma bad’ line falls down when we consider that the best evidenced first-in-line treatment for bipolar disorder is lithium - a cheap metallic salt which can’t be patented and which barely makes a profit.

It can’t be denied that social conditions play a huge part in shaping mental health outcomes. The pressures of working life are

so inimical that many of us find it difficult to work. This brings its own pressures, financial, from societal stigma, from the difficulty of carving out a meaningful life outwith the structures of paid work. While bipolar disorder may not be directly caused by capitalism, it is less easy to live with it in a society shaped by capitalism.

‘From each according to their abilities to each according to their needs.’ Mental healthcare is a human right and in a well-ordered society, resources would be allocated to both caring for patients and giving us the means to lead a decent life. It is not a wild communist notion to demand care which is properly funded by the sharing of society’s resources. This was fundamental to the NHS before it was systematically defunded as a prelude to inevitable privatisation.

But resources are not given and care is rationed. Diagnoses are delayed. Beds are not there. Resource-intensive talking cures are rare - sometimes we barely even get time to talk to our psychiatrists. Care is not wholly absent - we can get medication - but in an underfunded system we are conditioned to settle for a level of care

which the professionals themselves know is inadequate.

In this context, theorising on the capitalist origins of mental ill health is of next to no practical help. It is already obvious to all that the artificial conditions of modern life can drastically worsen mental illness. It is also obvious that our mental healthcare system is failing and cannot anyway provide the sticking plaster that a wounded society needs. We should perhaps be struggling less to find a socio-economic causation of mental ill health. The point is to help patients.

We should certainly fix society in the longer term. This would benefit all, not just those of us with mental ill health diagnoses. But we cannot wait for a revolution of the future.

Let’s hold on to some basic ideas - better therapeutic environments for those needing care - psychiatrists who have time to listen and demand them now.

David writes on Substack as The Monkey Whisperer.

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 09

Our New Strategy:

A Time for Transformation You may have seen that we recently launched our brand new strategy for 2026–2030!

At Bipolar Scotland, our strategy sets out the change we want to create over the next five years and where we’ll focus our time, energy and resources to make the biggest difference for people living with bipolar in Scotland.

We know there is still so much that needs to change. Too many people are waiting years for a diagnosis, struggling to access the right support, facing stigma and feeling unheard. Our new strategy is about helping to change that.

What we’re focusing on over the next five years: Earlier identification, diagnosis and support.

It’s unacceptable that people are waiting around 10 years on average for a bipolar diagnosis. People living with bipolar deserve timely access to

support, information and community, as early as possible.

Reducing health inequalities for people with bipolar Bipolar affects more than mood.

It can have a profound impact on physical health too. We want to help ensure people with bipolar are seen and supported as whole people, with services that better recognise the connection between physical and mental health.

Education, training and understanding We want more than awareness. Better understanding can help people living with bipolar receive the compassion, support and opportunities they deserve.

Visibility, voice and influence We want bipolar to be taken seriously

by Government and decision-makers.

The voices and experiences of people living with bipolar deserve to be heard and acted on.

To help us achieve these goals, we’ve also identified two priorities that will underpin everything we do: • Financial strength and sustainable growth • A supported and sustainable workforce I’m really proud of our new strategy, and incredibly grateful to our members, volunteers, trustees and staff who contributed their ideas and lived experience to help shape this. It feels like a genuinely collaborative vision for the future, and I’m excited for what comes next!

You can read our full strategy here: https://bipolarscotland.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2026/06/BipolarScotland-Strategy-2026-2030.pdf Our Larger Ambition Our new strategy sets out how we’ll create change over the next five years, but behind this sits a bigger ambition: bipolar shouldn’t be a life sentence.

When we speak to our staff, volunteers and members with lived experience of bipolar, we hear about the invisible trauma of living with bipolar. People describe feeling unseen and unheard.

Bipolar often isn’t prioritised for understanding or empathy. Lives become disrupted. Relationships, careers and confidence are affected.

People make assumptions about what you are (and aren’t) capable of. Hope for the future can feel harder to hold onto.

Over time, your world can become smaller and smaller, and bipolar can begin to feel like a life sentence you’ll never escape.

But what if bipolar didn’t have to limit people’s lives?

We know bipolar is a lifelong condition, but with the right understanding, support and community, it doesn’t have to define someone’s future. Through our new strategy, we want to help more people move from simply surviving to truly living.

Be part of the transformation. Help us build a Scotland where bipolar isn’t a life sentence.

We need your support. If you believe bipolar shouldn’t be a life sentence, please consider making a donation to Bipolar Scotland. Together, we can change what living with bipolar looks and feels like in Scotland. Donate here: https://bipolarscotland.org.uk/donate/ Image: Vecteezy.com

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 11

THE FUT

By Graham Morgan

I tend to look at the future sadly. For most of my life I have been trying to help create a future for people like us that is better and fairer and more hopeful and now, maybe with old age, I am cynical. I do not see, not really, much evidence of a better world. Actually for many of us it is much worse; we do not get support, it is hard to get into hospital and it is hard to get treatment and increasingly the reality of mental illness is doubted and wild cruel policies seem to be being floated to get those who clearly cannot work back into work.

Attitudes?

I encountered perhaps the most humane and delightful approach from nurses in an Asylum over forty years ago and sometimes nowadays in the weariness and dogged approach to procedure with stock questions each time I get my depot, sometimes find it hard to summon an ounce of trust for those that help me.

With the publicity about recent terrible murders in England, I am more frightened to disclose my diagnosis than ever before and when I look at schools where once I helped speak with thousands of young people about our lives, I am saddened that one of our young family members entire education about people like me has been a lesson analysing the crimes we have committed.

I am writing not long after the riots in Belfast and Glasgow which were inspired by falsehoods, distortion anger and hatred and feel worried. I looked at the extremists in America and never thought we would see them flourish in our country. I do not like prejudice and hatred and bigotry. And I do not like the idea that people already marginalised in our world, increasingly live

in fear. It is for those sorts of reasons that I objected to the assisted dying bill. I have almost lost faith in goodness and see us only steps away from a return to eugenics and the removal of those of us seen as disabled or unproductive and that bill, that in some ways could have been good for some of us, to me, threatened the return of something awful.

Despite that, I read a post recently by a Muslim family man who met up with a die hard Reform family man. I am not sure I would have wanted that encounter. I do not really want to speak with those who espouse hatred, but the account of the encounter was uplifting. Two men, who are light years apart in politics and values, met and found a common humanity. They talked of their children and partners and their work and where they lived and what they loved and no, they did not change their politics but they found a connection that was valuable and precious.

For many years now I have thought similarly, in a way. I see so many people highlighting what they think would create a better world, shouting, marching, desperate to be listened to and vindicated and all it really is, is anger and rigidity and fear. I tend to hate those people who vilify those they consider different to them because they have a different culture or colour skin or because they are disabled or gay but then I also feel very wary of those who scream ‘Out, out, Nazi scum.’

Maybe that ideological violence could be quickly smoothed away if we could put down our rage and see those around us as fellow humans with quirks and foibles, pluses and negatives. Some of my closest friends increasingly say they have gone

TURE off humans and that the world would be a better place without us. They say animals, particularly dogs, are more loveable and less horrid but I think when we open our eyes and smile at each other and give of our hearts, then we are wonderful and that this is possible for all of us.

I said I worried about the future but the kindness I met from a small number of workers forty years ago when such a thing was a rarity has been replicated throughout my life with a mental illness.

When I am dismayed by the impersonality of corporate health care, I still meet people most days, who work in it and who are, despite policy and procedure and defensiveness and the need never to admit fault, wonderful. Their humanity and their love and their respect and their ability to preserve our dignity when we have lost

most of it, shines through and because of them (and us) it is possible to think we might have a better future than I fear it could be.

I am not sure I would really want another huge strategy from the government with goals and targets and false reassurance, instead I think I might ask them to measure, in every helpers supervision session and appraisal how they have demonstrated kindness to us; their clients, and how they have brought love into their work and how they have left us with dignity and respect, even when we have been sectioned or admitted to hospital.

If they knew that was their most important contribution and that their service would be measured against it, I think the future could be brighter for all of us.

Image: Vecteezy.com

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 13

Why There Has Never Been More Reason for Hope

By Gillian Sheriff

There is something quietly revolutionary happening in bipolar research. Scientists are unlocking new ways to understand how the brain works. Artificial intelligence is helping researchers identify patterns that humans can’t easily detect.

Wearable technology is moving beyond counting steps to recognising changes in mood.

The future isn’t simply about treating episodes better,it is about preventing them, predicting them and helping people stay well for longer.

If you’ve ever tried different medications before finding the one that works, you’re not alone. One of the biggest frustrations in bipolar care has always been that two people with the same diagnosis can respond very differently to the same treatment.

Researchers at leading centres are working to change that through what’s known as precision psychiatry.

Instead of relying solely on symptoms, scientists are combining genetics, brain imaging, health records and even lifestyle data to understand why one treatment works for one person but not another. The long-term goal is simple: to make treatment more personal and tailored to your specific circumstances.

Your smartwatch might become part of your care team.

Many people with bipolar become experts at spotting the early signs of an episode. Perhaps sleep starts to

disappear. Thoughts become faster.

You feel unusually productive, or unusually withdrawn. Often these changes are only obvious once you’re already becoming unwell.Researchers believe technology could help change that. Scientists are exploring how smartphones and wearable devices can detect subtle changes in sleep, activity, movement, speech patterns and daily routines that often occur before a mood episode develops. Rather than replacing doctors, these tools could provide an early warning system, giving people precious time to act before symptoms become severe.

Artificial intelligence won’t replace psychiatrists, but it could make them even better.

Artificial intelligence has become one of the biggest stories in healthcare, and mental health is no exception.

Researchers are using AI to analyse vast amounts of clinical data, searching for patterns that might predict mood changes, improve diagnosis or identify which treatments are most likely to succeed.

Stanford Medicine recently launched an international Commission on Precision Mental Health, comparing psychiatry’s future to the transformation that imaging brought to cardiology and cancer care. Their vision is ambitious: combining brain science with clinical expertise to move mental healthcare away from trial and error and towards evidence-led precision.

The future of bipolar doesn’t only belong to researchers.

Many of the habits that emerging science continues to support are available right now. Protect your sleep as carefully as you protect your medication.

Track your moods to notice patterns.

Whether you use an app, a notebook or a calendar, awareness is one of the most powerful tools you have. Finally, don’t overlook the fundamentals. Regular exercise, meaningful routines, strong relationships, managing stress and reducing alcohol and recreational drug use remain some of the most evidencebased ways of supporting longterm stability. These habits may not sound revolutionary. But increasingly, science suggests they’re exactly the foundations upon which tomorrow’s

innovations will build.

More than surviving.

Perhaps the biggest change isn’t happening in laboratories.It’s happening in expectations.

The goal of bipolar treatment used to be avoiding crisis, increasingly, the goal is helping people flourish.

Researchers are asking bigger questions: not simply How do we stop episodes? but How do we help people build fulfilling careers, nurture relationships, maintain creativity and enjoy long-term wellbeing? That change in mindset matters, because living well with bipolar isn’t just about reducing symptoms; it’s about expanding possibility.

Image: Vecteezy.com

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RESEARCH CORNER

THE FUTURE OF BIPOLAR PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH

by Dr Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots Image: Vecteezy.com

New ways of doing research are helping us to better understand serious mental health conditions like bipolar. In this edition of the Research Corner, we take a look at what the future of mental health research may look like.

Measuring mental health in ‘life as it is lived’ Our mood can vary a lot over time, even within a week or sometimes a single day. One of the major challenges with mental health research in the past was that people’s mood was measured when they came in to a clinic or research lab for an appointment. This meant that only a single snapshot of their mood might be captured. People’s responses to questions about their mental health may also be influenced by being in an ‘artificial’ setting like a clinic or lab, and may not match their mood in their daily lives.

These challenges are being solved using a research method called EMA, or ‘ecological momentary assessment’. EMA involves delivering questions to people remotely using digital technology like smartphone apps. By using EMA, we can better understand how people are feeling in their ‘life as it is lived’ rather than in an artificial setting. This technology also helps us track mental health more closely over time, rather than relying on one-off measurements, which gives us a more accurate picture of how someone’s mood might be changing. Many mental health studies are starting to use EMA because of its advantages over traditional methods of measuring mental health.

Monitoring sleep comfortably Healthy sleep is a very important part of physical and mental wellbeing. We know that sleep patterns are disrupted when people are experiencing mood episodes.

However, measuring sleep accurately is a major barrier to better understanding the relationship between sleep and mental health.

Think about it: how accurately can you remember the exact time you fell asleep last night, how many times you woke up during the night, and what time you get out of bed this morning? Trying to remember how long you slept almost always involves a bit of guesswork.

More objective methods (like PSG or ‘polysomnography’) involve asking people to sleep in a lab while wearing lots of sensors and wires all over their body, which means they might not sleep as naturally or comfortably as they might in their own homes.

New technologies are helping us solve these issues. Wearable devices, including wristbands, headbands, and rings, can measure sleep in people’s daily life. Some people report struggling to wear these devices long-term, but radar-based monitors (which we use in our research at the University of Edinburgh) can solve this issue because they sit by the bedside rather than needing to be worn all the time. These devices are helping us track sleep for longer periods with minimal discomfort or burden for participants.

Understanding how biology contributes to mental health

Research in mental health is starting to adopt a “whole-person” approach.

This involves combining information on how biological processes in the body and stressful life experiences together affect health outcomes in mental health conditions such as bipolar. Specifically, researchers are interested in two biological processes: inflammation (activation of the body’s immune response) and metabolism (the chemical reactions that produce energy from food). These processes seem to be thrown off balance in people experiencing mental health issues.

Understanding how biology contributes to mental health New biological techniques are allowing us to measure chemical signals of these processes even in extremely small quantities in blood – as low as onetrillionth of a gram in one millilitre of blood (a fraction of a teaspoon). To put this in context, this is equivalent to finding a single drop of liquid after it has been dissolved into 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools! Our ability to detect these markers so accurately means that we are becoming better equipped to discover the mechanisms that connect physical health and mental health.

07353104179.

• Spread the word! If you know anyone living with bipolar who might meet the eligibility criteria, you can send them the study website: https:// www.metabolicpsychiatryhub.com/ takepart

Author bio: Dr Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots (he/him) is a Research Fellow in the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry at Edinburgh, and Chair of the British Neuroscience Association’s EDI Advisory Board. His research interests are in immune and metabolic psychiatry, particularly focusing on improving mental health outcomes in populations in the Global South.

Sounds interesting – can I get involved?

There are opportunities to get involved in bipolar-related research at the University of Edinburgh which use these leadingedge methods. We are currently looking for adults (aged 16-35) living in Scotland who have a diagnosis of bipolar to take part in a study called METPSY. This study is investigating the relationship between metabolism and mental health using multiple approaches, including long-term sleep monitoring, continuous glucose monitoring, smartphone-based mood questionnaires, and in-person mental health assessments.

You can get involved in two ways: • Take part in the study! If you would like more information or believe you meet the eligibility criteria, please contact the study team at metpsy@ed.ac.uk or call BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 17

The Future

Is the future uncertain or is it clear Is it very far or is it very near Is it positive and bright Or is it negative and dull What lies ahead It can be a challenging hill

The future is difficult with a bipolar diagnosis So many mood changes, it’s a balancing act But together as a bipolar community We draw strength from each other We are not facing trials alone But have support and strength together

We look for change and positives ahead A breakthrough in the law To be mental health led We fight and we campaign We collectively speak out We want a positive future Where everyone is cared for right

The future may be uncertain and often unclear The road is far, but we are getting near We can have many struggles And steep hills to climb But we are a positive community And our future will always shine

By Colette MacFadyen

Fly Free

What does the future mean to you Are you hopeful or full or dread Can we change our future Head in a new direction Can we change from negative to positive And alter the course of our life I think at times we need to dig deep We need to find inner strength We need to really try hard Because life can be difficult and challenging There are times we feel we can’t go on But there are people around us Who reach out and show they care They offer the hand of friendship They give us the strength to face the future The community that are beside you Who sees your struggles and stresses So be strong and have hope Hope in the future That you will survive And life will flourish And you will fly

By Colette MacFadyen

Image: Vecteezy.com

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 19

OPTIMISM

for pessimists

By Pete Stanton

The idea of the future can be both hopeful and terrifying in equal measure. Of course, the very nature of it as something which is unknown means we can project whatever we want onto it, whether that projection is optimistic or pessimistic.

I am by nature a pessimist. When I’m defending my position I’ll call myself a realist, but the truth is I’m not always objective. If there’s a more negative way of looking at something, I’ll definitely choose that over the sunnier version. I think that this can make life difficult, because people see pessimism as a character flaw, that to be optimistic is to be virtuous and to be pessimistic is to have given up, and giving up is for losers.

However, pessimism is often the result of many lessons hard learnt, with one of the main conclusions being that to be hopeful is to be vulnerable, and vulnerability is often abused. So, it feels safer and more circumspect to err on the side of pessimism. If you don’t get your hopes up, you can’t be disappointed, as the saying goes. But

conversely, if you never get your hopes up, then you never try or risk anything or roll the dice. And then pessimism becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

But, in an uncharacteristic display of optimism, I would argue that we are not alone in these feelings. These are universal issues that some of our culture’s greatest minds have wrestled with. And here’s what they’ve come up with…

“Some people see the glass half full.

Others see it half empty. I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.”

George Carlin “If you think this universe is bad, you should see some of the others.” Philip K. Dick “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to the society. The optimist invents the aeroplane; the pessimist, the parachute.” George Bernard Shaw

“We remember the sardonic war-time joke about the optimist and the pessimist.

The optimist was the man who did not mind what happened so long as it did not happen to him. The pessimist was the man who lived with the optimist.”

Winston Churchill

“The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or being pleasantly surprised.” Aldous Huxley “Within the chest of every cynic beats the heart of an optimist” Christopher Brookmyre

“What a beautiful day!” ... “So far.”

Samuel Beckett “Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.”

Margaret Atwood

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 21

BIPOLAR SUPPORT GROUPS ACROSS SCOTLAND We run online and in-person peer support groups across Scotland – friendly, safe spaces for anyone living with or affected by bipolar. Here’s a full list of all our groups running during August and September. Why not talk to people who get it?

To access an online support group, please visit https://bipolarscotland.org.uk/gethelp/support-groups/ to sign up.

SCOTLAND-WIDE (ALL ONLINE) BIPOLAR BLETHER: For anyone living with or affected by bipolar in Scotland. Sunday 2 August and Sunday 2 September, 3-4pm.

18-30: For anyone aged 18-30 affected by bipolar in Scotland. Wednesday 5 & 19 August, Wednesday 2 & 16 September 7-8pm.

FRIENDS & FAMILY: For carers and loved ones.

Monday 17 August & Monday 21 September, 7-8pm.

REGIONAL AYRSHIRE & DUNDEE • Tuesday 4 August & Tuesday 1 September, 7-8pm.

HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS Highlands & Islands online group: Thursday 20 August & Thursday 17 September, 7-8pm.

• Dundee in-person (Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action, 10 Constitution Rd, Dundee, SS1 1LL): Thursday 6 August and Thursday 3 September, 7-9pm.

• Highlands & Islands in-person (Café 1668, 86 Church St, Inverness, IV1 1EP): Thursday 6 August & Thursday 3 September, 7-9pm.

BORDERS • Wednesday 19 August and Wednesday 16 September, 7-8pm.

DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY • Dumfries & Galloway online group: Tuesday 18 August & Tuesday 15 September, 7-8pm.

FIFE & FORTH VALLEY • Fife & Forth Valley online group: Tuesday 11 & 25 August and Tuesday 8 & 22 September, 7-8pm.

GLASGOW PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CITY AND WEST ONLINE GROUPS HAVE BEEN MERGED. • Glasgow City & West online group: Sunday 9 August and Sunday 13 September, 7-8pm.

• Glasgow City in-person (Premier Inn, Glasgow City, 187 George St, Glasgow, G1 1YU): Wednesday 12 August & Wednesday 9 September, 7-9pm.

• Glasgow West in-person (Partick Trinity Church, 20 Lawrence St, Partick, Glasgow, G11 5HG): Wednesday 226 August and Wednesday 23 September, 7-9pm.

NORTH LANARKSHIRE North Lanarkshire in-person (Coatbridge Community Centre, 9 Old Monkland Rd, Coatbridge, ML5 5EA): Monday 10 August & Monday 14 September, 7-9pm.

PAISLEY • Paisley online group: Monday 10 August & Monday 14 September, 6-7pm.

• Paisley in-person (Methodist Central Hall, 2 Gauze St, Paisley, PA1 1EP): Monday 24 August & Monday 28 September, 6-7.30pm.

WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE • West Dunbartonshire online group: Wednesday 12 August & Wednesday 9 September, 7-8pm.

• West Dunbartonshire in-person (Concord Community Centre, Dumbarton, St Mary’s Way, G82 1LJ): Wednesday 226 August & Wednesday 23 September, 7-9pm.

WEST LOTHIAN • West Lothian in-person (Bathgate Community Centre, Lindsay House, South Bridge St, Bathgate, West Lothian, EH48 1TS): EAST LOTHIAN • East Lothian online group: Thursday 27 August & Thursday 24 September, 7-8pm.

Image: Vecteezy.com

BIPOLAR SCOTLAND 23

Want to get in touch with us?

Bipolar Scotland is based at: Studio 10 Anchor One 7 Thread Street Paisley PA1 1JR You can contact us by phone between 9.30am – 3:30 pm, Monday to Thursday, on: 0141 560 2050, or by email on info@bipolarscotland.org.uk We’re also on Instagram: (@bipolar_scotland), and Facebook: (bipolarscotland1) Charity Number: SC021705 Company Number: 163306 bipolarscotland.org.uk