The idea behind this prescription
thought is to gain a better understanding of your illness past present and
future. Moods are a lot like music. They are abstract and spread out through
time. What I realized is there are smarter ways to think about my past present
and future. I need to stop thinking about my past with regret, see the present
as precious, and the future as open to my design. So, I came up with these
concepts to help me do so.
Mooded is the ordered sequence of
all moods I've experienced from birth until the present moment. I could in
theory create a graph that shows the sequence of moods I've experienced from
birth until the present moment. If the sequence is accurate I could use that
data to help myself open up the future to new possibilities. What I've realized
is that my past isn't something to run from. It is the single most important
data mine that I have available to me. And it is vitally important to my
ability to design my future that I keep accurate record of my moods.
Mooding, is the mood you are
experiencing at present. Mooding is precious because it is an opportunity to do
research on that mood. I had a manic episode shortly after discovering this
prescription thought and I actually wasn't upset I was experiencing mania. Why?
Because it was an opportunity to better understand mania so that in the future
I can prevent it if I so desire. Mooding is where the action is at and it is
always worth being in your present mood.
Finally, Mood-furcation is the set of all possible
ordered mood sequences I might encounter in the future. In mathematics,
bifurcation is the splitting off of something into two paths. Think of your
past as a sequence of moods up until the present moment and think of your future
as a tree branching out from the present moment into four possible states of
being which are sleep (S), depression (D), centered (C), and mania (M). Once it
occurred to me to think of my future as a tree branching off in many directions
I'm now invigorated with enthusiasm! There are so many possibilities! I'm not
doomed. I can handle this without a doubt. What mood is going to come next?
It's very exciting.
