Overview of my Current Increased Happiness and Peace

From time to time I am still having negative feelings or judgments, but I am getting better at noticing those thoughts/feelings and reasoning with myself why I shouldn't act on them and how those thoughts/feelings will pass. They always do pass. I go back to feeling happy with my life and the people I know. I don't want to ruin a relationship to spout vitriol which temporarily relieves me. Just reminding myself those negative thoughts and feelings will pass usually works, though a few times I have been caught off-guard and have been unkind back. I get so afraid of being walked all over again. I need to continue working on expressing myself and how something affects me while still being respectful and kind, even if the other person isn't respectful or kind back. I'm still too sensitive about what others' impressions of me might be. Criticism and accusations still give me panic attacks. If someone said something awful about me I'd probably take them too seriously instead of assuming the person saying such negative things probably has a problem they are taking out on me.

Sometimes I still feel powerless, but knowing I can change my perspective of myself and the world and taking steps to live a different lifestyle makes me feel more in-charge of my life and happiness. And my medication helps, too, so the anxiety and bipolar don't rule my life so much and I can make wiser decisions and don't feel bad for no reason. I still have to work on my worrying or focusing on the past or future instead of on the present. I am getting better about worrying about the future, though, and keeping my thoughts more on the present or near-present. The past I'm starting to see as an unfolding story that led me to wear I am now, which is overall a pretty good place, so even the bad things that happened seem purposeful and less destructive. It was a state of great pain and wishing to die that made me want to turn around my communications and focus. Hopefully those incidents in March that made me so desperate and depressed won't repeat themselves. I may feel very negative feelings and have very negative thoughts again at some point, especially due to being bipolar, but hopefully I've learned how to better handle those situations when they arise.

Talked to my Psychiatrist about Zyprexa and Ritalin LA

I talked to my psychiatrist about my overeating while on Zyprexa, to the point of making myself very ill. I said how taking Ritalin LA in the early evening, as well as in the morning, controls my hunger and keeps me from overeating. His first idea was to decrease my Zyprexa dosage, but he doesn't have my file at home and I don't know if he realizes I've only been on this new dose for 2 1/2 months. It's true my mania and depression are under control, but I feel much better on this higher dose than I did even prior to my hypomania/severe depression cycle that occurred in March. I'm generally a lot happier and calmer now, and while that might not all be due to medication, I'm sure some of it is. I don't want to go back to struggling as I did on a lower dose of Zyprexa. Maybe after I'm stable for a longer period of time I can decrease it. So, in the meantime, I'm going to have a prescription for Ritalin LA in the morning and then in the early evening. I don't get any bad effects from it. On regular Ritalin it would wear off very suddenly and I'd get very anxious from suddenly feeling different. On Ritalin LA, though, I don't even notice when it wears off, aside from getting really hungry when my morning dose wears off. It helps my mood, attention span, and appetite.

5 Gratitudes

1. Going to the library and getting the books The Power of NOW and the rest of the Narnia series
2. Reading The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle
3. Seeing a weird version of Swan Lake with men playing the swans
4. Talking to my psychiatrist, who was okay with my medication change (taking Ritalin LA twice a day instead of once)
5. A generally good mood today