3 lessons for Christians on managing your mood

Dr Sharon Hastings was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder 14 years ago. This World Bipolar Day, she explores how we can all be more aware of how we’re feeling

If you had to rate it on a scale - where zero is feeling like life is not worth living, and ten is feeling like you’re able to fly - where is your mood right now?

Our moods are important. They influence our thoughts, physical bodies and behaviour. No one knows more about this than those with bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic depression), an illness of extreme moods.

When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I was at a ten, twirling round my psychiatrist’s office in a party dress and wearing iridescent green eyeshadow right up to my eyebrows. But soon the high was replaced with a series of profound depressive episodes. (Ultimately, after I experienced psychotic symptoms while my mood was ‘normal’, my diagnosis was changed to schizoaffective disorder: bipolar type)