Q&A: What happens when we get out of balance?
I realize I’m going through a somewhat pedantic time here, laying out this treatise on sanity and being unbalanced. It’s a prelude and background reference work to more “conversations” where things will get emotional and interesting. So just bear with me while I get these ideas about sanity out of my system. Here we go.
Recap on sanity: the time when you can think straight – when the usual negative things don’t throw you and when you can make better relationships with people, and plan your own fulfillment. You have mental energy when you feel sane, you feel safe and grounded and it’s just awesome.
Now: what happens when you get out of balance is you find yourself in “survival mode.” You’re usually shooting from the hip in survival mode, scrambling to feel better.
All you can do, when you are in survival mode, is make it through your day. This may include eating or shopping for comfort, screaming and yelling for relief from emotional pressures, crying or becoming isolated to soothe yourself, or thinking about what you have to look forward to. Unfortunately, this survival mode does not leave enough energy for thinking about how to create more fulfillment, sanity or happiness.
Again: everybody goes through periods of imbalance for whatever reason. You can’t go through life being perfectly balanced. Everybody suffers from periods of imbalance or from pockets of imbalance, where one or more situations or emotions create a survival-mode situation that is too overwhelming to think clearly through, and which causes agitation and feeling that you are in a war-zone, scared, unsafe or trapped.
Stay tuned: next –
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY MENTAL HEALTH IS POOR, OR IF WHAT I’M FEELING IS NORMAL?