Where's the Responsibility?

Feb 20, 2008 - 10:21 AM PST

Everyday I fear we live in a world where fewer and fewer people are taking responsibility for the issues in their life. I think a large part of it stems from the constant stream of media images of corporations and world leaders not taking responsibility for the issues they have caused. Responsibility also requires a lot of strength and confidence in knowing that you can be strong enough to be vulnerable and admit some faults. Most of us are pretty aware of people who don't take responsibility for a lot of problems, so I am going to spend some time focusing on what you can do in your life to change that.

There are varying levels of what we need to take responsibility for. I have bipolar disorder, but this doesn't mean I can go home, flip out on my girlfriend and say, "Well, honey I have bipolar disorder, so deal with it." That would be inexcusable. What I need to focus on in times where I may flip out or do anything related to my disorder is recognize what the problem is, apologize for it and do whatever I can so that the next time I'm in that situation I don't have the same result.

There was a time in my life where I didn't know any better and bipolar disorder got the best of me. My life was filled with 20-30 hour alcohol induced comas from binge drinking, broken knuckles, and more destructive behavior. I hit rock bottom and realized, wait a second I didn't choose to have this disorder, but I have to make a choice to be honest and responsible in dealing with it. I have to make a choice to be healthy, be honest and do whatever I can to work and find a different way to deal with this. It took me a really long time to get to a place where I could care enough about myself to even want to try and deal with the disorder in a positive way and an even longer time to find that way, but it all started with me realizing I had to take responsibility for the issue that was affecting me.

I really wish more people would be able to find a way to do this in their lives. I think at a lot of people's core is some lack of caring about oneself or even self-hatred, which makes taking responsibility extremely difficult, because when you don't care about yourself to begin with why would you take responsible steps to deal with problems? So I think that's a good place to start. If you're in a situation where you know some life event, (or in my boat some disorder is plaguing your life and you didn't choose to experience it or go through it) then now is the time to think about what you can do about it. The earlier you are able to take responsibility for your recovery the better off your life, relationships and future will be. Taking responsibility puts some power back into you, makes you more aware of others feelings and needs, and leads to you becoming a more rounded person.

Discuss this article on our forums