#125: Broken Boundaries Break Your Sanity

FROM THIS SHOW…

Let’s consider this scenario: you’re trying to get back on your feet and you take a job at a restaurant. Things go well enough at first, but one day your manager calls you in a panic to come and cover a shift. You think, fine, OK, yes. Do I have a choice? And you go in, even though you had plans to celebrate your niece’s first birthday that afternoon.

Even though you had to explain things to the family, you went in. And eventually the feelings of being upset were swallowed up in the demands of your tables. Not a big deal, right? Maybe, until it happened again not a week later and your manager again had an emergency in staffing.

As the months of your new job roll on you being to see the pattern. And now your mood toward this job is suffering even more than when you first sucked it up and went to work there. You shiver at the next phone call, because you can’t say no and it almost always throws off the things you need to do outside of work.

On today’s episode of The Bipolar Now Podcast, Mike tackles the issue of “boundaries” and all the ways that people violate our need for our own space and our own lives; even the way we violate our own health through gaps in personal boundaries.

You’ll learn several areas of life where boundaries are broken and left unattended, as well as a few ideas for how to properly gate who comes in and out of your life.

You don’t want to miss it!

Listen to the podcast:

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts!  With every past episode at your fingertips, plus special Bonus Content with my guests, what's not to love! And if you're feeling generous, would you please leave me a review? It is a special treat to read each and every one of them. Just write about your favorite part of the show! :-) 

TAKEAWAYS

• Boundaries are essential to your health and your sanity. When people violate your boundaries, they are not respecting your needs but are constantly taking from you instead.

• Boundaries fail and get trampled down when we don’t enforce them with those who want to push us around or get something out of us to serve their needs without considering ours.

• In bipolar disorder, boundaries get discarded during manic episodes. What’s a credit card limit? And in depressive episodes, it’s much harder to keep health boundaries, like waking up on time.

Lifer Discussion Guide

Use the questions in today’s Lifer Guide to assist you over any hurdles you may have to clear as you address your mental health. These are special conversations!

“Lifers” are people who have unwavering faithfulness. This assures you that they’ll stick by you through all the highs and lows that are normal for a life with mental health challenges. If you haven’t nominated a lifelong family member or friend as part of your non-medical support team, what are you waiting for? :-)

The Questions:

1) Hard question: did you have any feelings like you were not in control of your life when you were a kid? / What happened?

2) Who is the first person who came to mind when you heard Mike share about boundaries in today’s episode? / What do they do to you?

3) How are you going to address a violated boundary with someone in your life? / How soon do you want to do that?

Join the Tribe!

Once you’ve had a chance to talk or journal about these things you might have a question from this episode. If so, make sure you head on over to The Bipolar Now Podcast Network on Facebook! There’s quite a few people over there who are also taking a new step in their mental health. And we’d love for you to share your story with us when you’re ready. So don’t miss out!