Man, I feel good! A nice contrast from the post-Christmas depression I was having. We’re getting into hypomania territory. I better try to rein it in. You can suppress happiness in the exact same way you suppress any other emotion, such as anger. No, suppress isn’t the right word. You feel the emotion, you honor the emotion, and then the emotion obeys your commands.
It only goes so far, of course. Some emotions are strong enough that you simply won’t be able to bring them to heel. Then you just hang on for the ride, and try to suppress any dangerous urges that come up.
There’s a scene in “The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil”, s01e03 of The Tick (1994), where Arthur is asking the Tick to “tone it down”. “I will suppress my every urge,” Tick replies. I’ve always been impressed by that line. I don’t know, it just sticks in my head, so I turned it into a strategy for coping with untreated mental illness. Some may wonder how suppressing your every urge could be a positive thing. Basically, when all your urges are doo-doo, it’s good to be able to just lie there in a fetal position and not do harm. (Fetal position is optional for advanced practitioners.)
So it’s bipolar disorder, right? So it makes you sad, but it also makes happiness dangerous and bad for you. (Hypomania is not technically happiness, but it sure feels like it.) I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I’m just rambling. The whole bipolar thing is a bummer.
Ethan Abides 