Feeling high is the opposite side of the coin to depression. Depression is painful and destructive to joy and feeling happy with life. It steals all the good feelings that accompany this life and leave a dark hole in the mind that swallows up gladness and positivity. It is to be fought and avoided, but sometimes in our desire to avoid the depressive feelings and mindset, we can replace it with over-positive thoughts and ideas. This can lead to feelings of being high, which we mistake for happiness and think it a better state than depression. This is not so. 

High mood can lead us into all sorts of false thought patterns but the good feeling keeps us away from the depression. Mind illness is dangerous for the sufferer for it can lead to death. If life seems not worth it, we can easily go down the treadmill of sorrow that ends in death. We can also find ourselves on the upward treadmill that leads to unrealistic thoughts and false ideas about safety and also lead to death. We must guard our thoughts very carefully and not allow ourselves to run up or down. We must ground ourselves in the love of God expressed to us through the Word of God and demonstrated for us by our Saviour Jesus. He gave up His life in an act of pure love that we would never have to suffer the certain consequences of our own sin. If we keep our mind grounded in that beautiful fact and trust in that redeeming love, we will quit our mind from running up high. We must remember that we were once washed and needed that cleaning power to release us for the power of sin in our life. 

Being in an unhelpful mindset can dispose us to other states of thinking. People seek this “high” through drug taking, which is really unhelpful to us and gets us into wrong desires and wrong ways to think. Our mind does not need extra chemicals to make it function and we must stay clear of all these pathways that lead us into wrong lifestyle choices. The sufferer experiences the effect of self-generating mind chemicals and often need medication to even up the effect of those chemicals. When we are depressed, the mind can over-compensate by making chemicals that send the mind high rather than the low. This is also really unhelpful but we can help ourselves by recognising it and getting help from talking or some medications. 

The Scripture speaks of being self-controlled or safe minded, in the way we think things through. For everyone, not just a sufferer, we need to keep our mind and heart grounded in the Word of God so that our thinking is stable and reasonable. The Scripture is full of helpful words and precious promises for the believer and we ground our mind in them and trust that God will keep us safe and steady. We must not allow ourselves to be plunged into depressive thought patterns nor allow our mind to entertain grandiose thoughts that make us unreasonable. We keep the steady pace of living reasonably and keeping our mind health steady.

We are not able to do this or sustain this state of mind without the help of our Maker and Lord, for only He can decipher the conundrum that is the human psyche. He is able to rescue us in our great need, whether we are low or high, and bring us to a stable thinking state. How wonderful it is to know that we are not on our own but have this amazing help at our disposal. To access this help we need to approach God in true repentance and faith and bow our hearts and minds before Him in true contrition and repentance. God will always respond to the contrite heart and will take us up and forgive our sins and make us a new person. He will minister to us in a way that only He can do and teach us to trust His ways and obey His holy commandments. This is the path of life and peace and God will lift us up in understanding and purpose in our life. 

How great it is to know God, for He knows us so well and has purchased this free salvation for us so that we do not constantly stumble and fall. God is able to keep us and keep our minds on an even keel. He will teach us to stay stable and even in our moods and give us great liberty from all sin and moral failure. This is what is offered to us by God and no one else can do that for us. There are medical helps, which may be helpful, but no one can understand our psyche like the Lord and so only He can restore us and make us new each day. His keeping power is phenomenal and those who experience it are completely bowled over by Him and we walk with Him in great peace. This is the liberty of the children of God, that mighty know Him and glorify Him every day. He will bring us to a safe place in this life and the wonders of heaven when this life is over for us. What a true God! 

Let us seek the steady mindset of the Lord and say “goodbye” to self and sin. Let us seek a daily walk with God and an experience of his daily cleansing and power in our life. People will see us and be amazed at what God can do and we will be amazed too. We will be able to “see” the Lord as we read His book the Bible and enter new and wonderful understandings of its truth. The Holy Spirit from God will dwell in our inner person and make us holy to the Lord. He can do this for anyone who wants it and seeks Him. God says He will save all who call on Him in truth and earnestly seek Him. Let us be free from the bands of mind illness and gain the liberty in Christ. This is my prayer for the people I love and care for and I trust that you will find it too.