Arty Kitkat
I do this too and it does help identify patterns. I would also recommend marking in your period too. I didn't realise until I started to improve a little but I was and still am getting awful pmt. I also found Wednesdays and Thursdays were bad for me so I cut my hours at work. I now don't work Wednesdays. Its a struggle financially as I wasn't well paid to start with but I cope better throughout the week. I'm still pretty bad on Wednesdays but at least and can retreat to bed and rest up. I also was having panic attacks in the bath and found that I was unconsiously counting the rhythm of the fan and it was speeding up my thinking so I changed to bathing by candle light. I still get anxious but no where near as bad.
Posts by Arty Kitkat
I do this too and it does help identify patterns. I would also recommend marking in your period too. I didn't realise until I started to improve a little but I was and still am getting awful pmt. I also found Wednesdays and Thursdays were bad for me so I cut my hours at work. I now don't work Wednesdays. Its a struggle financially as I wasn't well paid to start with but I cope better throughout the week. I'm still pretty bad on Wednesdays but at least and can retreat to bed and rest up. I also was having panic attacks in the bath and found that I was unconsiously counting the rhythm of the fan and it was speeding up my thinking so I changed to bathing by candle light. I still get anxious but no where near as bad.
I've messaged her on fb and she's really busy with the business. It looks like she may leave here tho 
That was a really brave move coming of your meds Sheila. Well done. I'm hoping when things level out for long enough I can cut down. I really want to have a baby at I'm 35 so I've decided this year that I can't wait till I come off them/reduce them and thats made me feel a bit better. Its kind of taken the pressure of time out of getting well. I've been stablish for a few months but still get really shit spells and I have found since stopping the pill that I get really crappy pmt It's such a balancing act and you never know whats doing what fully till you stop them.
Sorry Michelle I just looked through my last comment and thought it sounded like I was checking up on you - I wasn't I just got on a bit of mission to find who it was that made you feel so crap. I hope you don't close your account. I also have a little idea how you feel, I made a bit of a mistake on a swap I was doing and got this message that was like a telling off! I felt so crap and like I was about 10 - it shouldn't matter but sometimes if it catches you on an off day its really horrible. Big hugs coming your way x
I had a look through loads of your recent project and I did see a few 'hmmm' comments on your little bracelets made from pony beads. I say 'hmm' as I thought it was hard to tell how to take the comments, whether they were being a little on the blunt side to be rude or whether it was a cultural/language thing or just how they talk.
I haven't seen these comments either. Unfortunately like Kiddo said there are trolls all over the web just out to wind people up to get a reaction. I will keep my eyes open though but I think what Laurels saying about naming and shaming is a good idea.
I use Tiger Balm as well as pills. I had a killer of a migraine monday though so I sympathise. Thankfully I don't get them very often. Also you could try keeping a food diary, I had a friend who found hers were triggered by chocolate Not nice to give up chocolate but given the choice between chocolate and migraine theres no choice!
What an ignorant and unhelpful thing to say I'm really sorry you were told that. That sounds like it came from someone of the 'old school, stiff upper lip, mustn't let the side down' brigade. Thats such an outdated and, more importantly, wrong way to view depression. Its a REAL illness. It doesn't need to be triggered by one big thing, it could be lots of things and if you are living with voices and other psychotic symptoms I think you must be extremely brave. I'm not the slightest bit surprised you're depressed. Thats a hell of a lot to deal with. Also depression is really hard and really serious. My guess is it kills more people than Cancer. I don't know if thats true but I bet it more than holds its own. Its also worse, in my opinion, than physical illness because it causes you to doubt yourself and almost seems to destroy you from the inside. It can also prevent you from asking for help.
Please feel reassured that no-one here feels like that.
I'm really sorry to hear this Maybe you need a longer admission and some more intensive treatment or your meds reviewed. Do you have an appointment with your psychiatrist coming up? Also do you get any other support in the community, eg. a psychiatic nurse or social worker? In the UK we also have an Early Interventions Team that work with 14 - 35 year olds who are suffering with psychosis and we also have a Crisis service which can see people daily or even several times a day. Do you have anything like this? You really seem to be struggling which is so sad to hear Although it seems impossible to believe right now you have a lot of things stacked in your favour - you are young and therefore likely to still have the flexibility to learn new strategies, you also seem to have bags of insight (i.e. you have a good level of self awareness) and you are well motivated (i.e you really want to get well).
Also some I say a lot (so sorry if its getting boring) - you have an illness! By this I mean that these symptoms are not personality flaws or failings on your part, they are symptoms that are part of a complicated illness which the doctors treating you haven't yet got a proper handle on. They will though. They just need to find the right combination of meds and support.
Its sounds horrible I hope you are able to find a therapist also. Its also still worth keeping an eye out for a hearing voice group. Although Peer Support groups can sometimes be looked down on as not as good as professional help, they appear to be very affective at maintaining stability. Also you are young (I think you said 19??) so having that opportunity to speak with others who have been through what you have been going through but who have managed to find a way of coming out the other end can give real hope. I run an under 30s group at the daycentre I work at and we recently had a workshop on hearing voices where someone from our hearing voices group came and met with those from our U30s group have psychotic symptoms with their illnesses and there seemed to be this huge sigh of relief from one of the group who is really struggling at the moment. He hadn't really spoke to anyone who had been where he is now and seen them come out the other end. Also it gave the group a chance to offload a bit of the guilt (possibly) around some of the things they had done which they thought may have contributed to their illness, like taking street drugs.
I found this so exceptionally sad when I read about it. I remember watching him interviewed on the Clothes Show years and years ago and thinking how down to earth and unpretentious he was. It feels like such a waste and i feel for his family and friends. Suicide is such a tragic way to loose someone close to you. RIP
I'm sorry Lakesha that it became so bad that you needed to be admitted. Sometimes though that can be the catalyst for getting the help you need. Last April I became extremely low with some slightly psychotic symptoms. I get horrible thoughts which feel like they don't belong to me and feel like premonitions so they can be awful as I believe that these things are inevitable and they are so vivid. They're not like negative thoughts or nightmares, they're very hard to explain but at my worse I believed that at some point in the near future I was dead and I'd killed myself and become petrified of everything in the house. I ended up punching the walls and sitting, crying in the dark chanting some odd expression about feeling the darkness. It was pretty horrible but as a result I ended up being referred to the crisis team and I my place on the waiting list for CBT got moved forward so I got to see someone much sooner. It unfortunately didn't 'fix' the problems but I learnt a lot about myself and have developed better ways to cope with the negative thoughts and haven't had a spell that bad for about 6 months.
I'm really chuffed to see that you also said you're doing better
I really felt for you when I read this. When I went to uni I had to leave my two cats behind with my parents. Cats are very sensitive to change too but they do adjust so long as they are getting plenty of love (which they sound like they are getting). One of my cats was so sensitive he used to get really unsettled when I was on school holidays (this was when I lived at home). He used to go really potty, laying on his back at my door and rattling it by sticking his paw under it and then when I'd finally let him in he's be on the bed right by my face purring really loudly. He'd settle down but I think me having lay ins really confused him and he needed to know what was going on.
Heather I had a similar experience with meds. When I was on Prozac it didn't even hit the sides, even when I was on the highest dose. And the Mertazapine just freaked me out as it was too strong. It also really scared me that the tablets where so small. I got really anxious about ODing on them if I had a bad night. The Venlafaxine seems a good mid way one and suits me but unfortunately it only really takes the edges of the depression but still thats way better than nothing.
Also don't give yourself a hard time about forgetting, I have days where I have good intentions and then get to the end of the day and remember. I think depression does odd things to your memory. I'm trying to get myself into a routine of eating regularly and not just crap when I realise I've forgotten. I've found that when that happens I get into a really bad cycle. When I get low blood sugar I get anxious and low but my appetite isn't always great so if I forget I eat rubbish like chocolate or cakes or lattes and then I get into this really negative thought pattern where I beat myself up because I have eaten 'bad' food and I'm therefore a bad person and it all just spirals. this last couple of days I've just been trying to focus on a day at a time. Its tough though. And Heather you're not complaining x You're just doing your best to juggle everything which is hard.