Can You Train Yourself to Be Happy and Lead to Greater Success in Your Life?

by DPK on March 26, 2012 · 4 comments

in Depression,Featured,Getting On Track,Getting Unstuck,Goals,GTD,Improving Mental Health

I just read a great article by Shawn Achor on the CNN site called “Is happiness the secret of success?” . Achor cites studies and figures to make the case that it does, indeed, pay off to be more happy than not.

For someone who suffers from depression like me this isn’t earth-shattering news, but it should hit home some more when I am wondering why I can’t get better and can’t get ahead. As a recovering drug addict, I most often found my happiness in a pill or some other substance to get high. Fighting every day to NOT abuse prescription pills or do any drugs is a Herculean struggle and one that has granted me nearly a year of serenity.
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Tagged as: doing positive things everyday, happiness leads to success, happiness study, overcoming depression, staying positive

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Involuntarily Committed: Days 8 to 10

by DPK on August 31, 2010 · 15 comments

in Depression,Featured,Getting On Track,Hospitalization,Mania

Day eight dawned like the previous seven, waking up early and drinking non-caffeinated coffee for an hour or two while trying to focus and read an Adrian McKinty book I had received from my paperbackswap membership before going into the hospital. The novel’s “hero” is a heroin addict so it wasn’t the best reading material at the time.

You can read the beginning of this psych ward odyssey by reading this post on my initial involuntary commitment and a few following that one.

But time moves slowly in the psych ward, a) because your doped up on medicine and b) because there really isn’t much to do when they’re not holding group therapy sessions. Oh there was always the TV to slither down and soak in for a while but I mostly abstained because I detested regular TV and kept my viewing to movies and mostly animated series I’d watch on the computer.

Once group started, you had to be awake and present and PARTICIPATE. This was the golden rule for leaving the psych ward in a timely fashion. Show up and participate.
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Tagged as: antipsychotics, drug addict, drug addiction, hospital stay, involuntarily committed, lamictal, lithium, mania, manic episode

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Involuntarily Committed: Days Three to Seven

by DPK August 22, 2010Featured

In retrospect it’s difficult to remember exactly what was going through my mind in the wee hours of the next morning when I continually called K on her cell as she drove home, alternately pleading with her and yelling at her to come back to my house. Needless to say it was psychotic mania. My [...]

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Day Two: Involuntarily Committed

by DPK August 15, 2010Featured

Day two of my stay in the locked ward dawned bright and brilliant. I was awake by 4:30, still feeling manic despite the antipsychotic meds and lithium the doctor had been administering to me at night. “Now what do I do?” I thought. “Another 3 days here and I can’t even have a cup of [...]

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Day One: Involuntarily Committed

by DPK August 8, 2010Hospitalization

Snorting Adderall…I don’t recommend it. That’s what got me in trouble this time. Staying up for days at a time, not taking my risperidal to calm down at night. Self-medicating with weed and herbal incense and klonipin & even buying MORE Adderall then what I’m prescribed. Oh yeah, and the percosets & Xanax and tequila… [...]

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Involuntarily Committed: My 12-Day Psych Ward Odyssey

by DPK August 5, 2010Hospitalization

Dear Readers, I have been away for far too long from my home, my friends, my blog… Reason? I was recently involuntarily committed to the local “Behavioral Health” facility after a particularly nasty bout of hypomania that unfortunately blossomed into full-blown psychotic mania. My lovely bipolar disorder, manic-depression, whatever you want to call it. I [...]

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Give Yourself TIME To Recover From A Depressive Episode

by DPK April 18, 2010Depression

Well, I haven’t posted on this blog or ANY of my blogs in over a month. Can you guess the reason? If you said I was depressed, unfortunately you were right. It was about six weeks of misery with little help from my psychiatrist. So how did I come out of the depression perhaps you’re [...]

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The Smallest Moments Make Up A Life

by DPK March 6, 2010Featured

There is a Zig Ziglar quote that goes something like “You will always get enough out of life if you give enough to other people.” Those words resound with me, and the longer I live the truer they are. And these are usually always SMALL MOMENTS. A perfect example of this adage occurred today when [...]

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Get Your Goals (And Life) On Track With GoalsOnTrack

by DPK March 2, 2010Featured

If you’re anything like me, you have a hard time making a list of things to do and sticking to it. My attention wanders, I get involved in other projects. And the time slips by. Soon enough and it’s mid-afternoon and I haven’t crossed a single thing off my list, or maybe I actually got [...]

9 comments [continue reading...]

Monday, Monday: Is This A Good Day For You To Post?

by DPK February 26, 2010Featured

I have to admit that while I do feel sad throughout the day at various times, I’m actually doing pretty well these last few weeks. I am happy to make that “report,” just to let all of you sad bloggers out there know there are good days ahead. So it’s Monday, dreaded Monday, first day [...]

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