*Words*

When I originally started blogging, I thought that I'd have no problem finding 365 different statistics or facts about mental illness, but here I am at post like 65 and I've pretty much run out.  There probably are 365 different facts and/or statistics about all the different types of mental illness, but I'm having trouble finding them.  I don't have direct access to the most recent volume of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), and there's not a copy that's been published online (there should be!).  It'd be a lot more simple to post information if it were perhaps a little more accessible.  And so from this point forward, I won't be including little factoids anymore, unless I find something that is particularly interesting or pertinent to what I'm writing about. 

I have been feeling physically yucky for over a week now.  My digestive system is all out of whack - I feel like I'm being forcefully pressed into the earth much more than usual.  I also awoke this morning with a sore throat and feeling a bit phlegmier than usual, as did my niece, so I'm anticipating impending illness.  I will try to use some Zicam to ward it off, but that stuff is expensive so I don't want to use it unless I know for sure I'm on the outer edge of full-on sickness.

I talked with a couple of friends that I haven't spoken to in awhile today, and felt like I was marginally helpful to both of them and the problems they came to me with, but we'll see.  I enjoy listening to other people's problems and offering constructive solutions if I can, or if nothing else, being able to listen.  The thought has crossed my mind to go into social work or psychology since I seem to be someone that more than a few people come to with psychological or relationship woes.  I suppose it has to do with my being so open and honest about my own struggles, but it feels good to take the focus off of my own internal battles for a moment and focus on helping others.

As someone who I sort of see as a whiner, I feel better about myself when I'm not talking about myself and my struggles, and it's even better when people I'm talking to are receptive to whatever advice or information I am offering to them.  However, there are people in this world that just whine and bitch about how unhappy they are and will do nothing to change their circumstances.  I think that is not only the hardest thing to do (I can't exactly change my circumstances as much as I'm dying to right now), changing the choices you make is the first thing that anyone can do to begin to change their circumstances.  One of the things I've learned in my psychotherapy sessions as well as my own research is that choices make all the difference.