Resilience Collective

Dear friends, hello! My name is Vicky. I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder over 20 years ago. I am a wife, a daughter, a friend, a sister, an employee of a social enterprise and have a long career history in the social services profession. I am grateful to be able to offer insights from my journey in resilience and mental health , and the things I have learned about myself and the condition over the years. I hope it can help you if you are on this journey too. How does it start? How do I know when I am starting to tip over that critical point that usually accompanies bipolar mania? I might be feeling on top of the world, highly creative and overflowing with enthusiasm for life. It feels so good doesn’t it? Or I could be feeling angry, defensive, at odds with the world, damaging my relationships and behaving differently than I usually would. I can completely change when I am in the grip of mania. The cruelest thing is that I often have no insight, especially if the mania is ac...

Change of perspective! Looking from many different angles I find keeping a journal useful. Start noting down situations that may have made you abnormally upset or confused. You may stick to two simple questions, “What made me upset?” and “Do I have the resources to overcome this situation?” If you notice that your mind is spiraling with negative thoughts, you may want to simply write all of them and then look at it tomorrow to see if any of these thoughts are helpful. If they aren’t, feel free to discard them. Some stressors are not worth holding on to, they do not make you “worthier”. Talk therapy and the community We need a community who understands our troubles to thrive. Mental health Support conditions do not choose people, and anyone can struggle from it. This pandemic has opened our eyes to the idea of therapy and a therapist can be effective for some. Don’t you find that sometimes just talking out loud about a problem already makes you feel just a little better? Finding th...

how to deal with stress at work: Working hard to provide for one's family appears to be the acceptable, even celebrated, norm in a fast-paced society like Singapore. We work five days a week on average, 9-10 hours a day in our offices, and for some of us, work creeps insidiously into our homes after work hours. Does work always have to be accompanied with stress? How can one deal with the rising levels of work stress that has plagued many Singaporeans? How does one cope with stress? A recent study by healthcare consultancy firm Asia Care Group found that Singapore spends about US$2.3 billion (S$3.1 billion), or 18 per cent, of its total healthcare expenditure on stress-related illnesses annually. In another related study on well-being, it was found that 92 per cent of working Singaporeans reported feeling stressed, higher than the global average of 84 per cent. These statistics are staggering, but those dealing with stress at work are not without help. Here are three tips one can u...