Motherhood provides a host of useful lessons on how to live with mental illness, and vice versa. Here are just a few things the two have in common (in my opinion, of course):<\/p>\n
1. Five years into both of them, plastic surgery is your only way of looking young again.<\/p>\n
2. There’s only one boss, and it’s best if that’s you.<\/p>\n
3. In both, you have to handle a lot of crap.<\/p>\n
4. Both require deep breathing.<\/p>\n
5. Time Outs are encouraged–especially for Mom (psych wards stays count for this).<\/p>\n
6. Both feel like you’re being pecked to death by a bird.<\/p>\n
7. You must learn on the spot–pop quizzes are thrown at you every half-hour.<\/p>\n
8. Both drive you insane (of course).<\/p>\n
9. Both are full of surprises and force you to tear up any script you may have written (how things were supposed to go).<\/p>\n
10. They require a support system, discipline, and a ton of self-control.<\/p>\n
11. You have to get out of bed in the morning for both.<\/p>\n
12. Bedtime often spells relief.<\/p>\n
13. Both take a chunk out your heart but give it back to your soul.<\/p>\n
14. You never graduate from or complete your responsibilities.<\/p>\n
15. You get used to frozen dinners, canned soup, and spats with your spouse.<\/p>\n
\n
16. You must sort out tons of advice, much of it horribly shallow and not at all useful.<\/p>\n
17. Both benefit from lots of sunshine and time at the park. <\/p>\n
18. They are tolerated best with a sense of humor.<\/p>\n
19. Both can make you fat if you’re not careful.<\/p>\n
20. They are more challenging to the soul than the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. (I don’t think he was either.)<\/p>\n
21. A bad day of either is more physically exhausting than an Olympic-distance triathlon.<\/p>\n
22. After only a few years they transform you into a more compassionate and loving human being, possibly a candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n
23. With them comes a lot of wisdom and patience, possibly world peace.<\/p>\n
24. A love for your kid(s) keeps you going through both.<\/p>\n
25. You have to strike that difficult balance between keeping busy but not too busy.<\/p>\n
26. The mornings and evenings are typically the hardest.<\/p>\n
27. Stress complicates thing. Best to avoid it as much as possible.<\/p>\n
28. Comparing yourself to others will paralyze you.<\/p>\n
29. There’s no going back.<\/p>\n
30. Your best is all you have, and that’s good enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Motherhood provides a host of useful lessons on how to live with mental illness, and vice versa. Here are just a few things the two have in common (in my opinion, of course): 1. Five years into both of them, plastic surgery is your only way of looking young again. 2. There’s only one boss,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\n