I finally have an appointment with a therapist this Tuesday morning. I'm eager to see her and have started a list of things I want to explore with her. In the meantime, and since it's taken a month to get an appointment, I began taking St. John's Wort for the depression I'm experiencing, along with Valerian for anxiety. These are both proven, safe and effective herbs for dealing with both of these issues and they do seem to be helping.
I've also made some decisions and I'm sure that's helping, too. I took a good look at the things I was feeling depressed about and the ones I can't do anything about - like aging - I prayed over and accepted. But there are a few things I can do something about and one is my job/career situation. I've been working two part-time jobs since I was able to after knee surgery, all the while looking for full-time work and applying for a few things. I realized that taking one of these jobs was as depressing as continuing to live without full-time work so I started looking into other options. There is a community college an hour from here that offers one and two-year programs in everything from graphic arts to medical coding. One or two years is doable plus I'm already used to being poor so what's another year or two below the poverty level? So I've got my application all filled out and am planning to start this summer. I'm thinking graphic arts but haven't fully decided yet. It sounds a lot more fun that medical coding!
As for drinking, I've been abstaining some, moderating some and still over-drinking some. I've done a lot of reading, some of which I shared in the previous post, plus I've read two other books: "The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure" by Chriss Prentiss and "My Way Out" by Roberta Jewell (not her real name). Both of these books recommend an approach that engages the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of addiction. I'm putting together a plan for myself that includes recommendations from these two books plus "The Heart of Addiction" by Lance Dodes, M.D. I'll be writing more about that in the coming week.
4 comments:
Good to read your post, Angela. Don't forget about hormonal stuff too (I'm thinking this is my problem) if the herbs aren't supportive enough.
I wish you the very best in your new career explorations, they sound interesting. Even medical coding...if you do medical billing it can be more lucrative if you don't mind dealing with insurance companies all day and have an eye for detail!
Blessings and peace,
O
The positive thing about medical coding is that you could conceivably work from home. I did that for a while, although I never got to the point of doing it from home.
How about medical transcribing?
All of this sounds really good.. You are doing so many things to move forward. :)
~*
Hi Angela, hope this week is better for you.
I know from bitter experience that drinking even small quantities of alcohol (a major depressant) on top of a serious depression caused me tremendous anguish. Please do take care.
I feel you have a very strong visual sense of design and wonder if studies would move you in that direction.
Hugs to you darling
Mary
Thank you, Olivia, Chani and Mary - for continuing to visit here!
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