Anika is right. You can't live thinking "what if". Instead you have to try and live in the present. It is VERY hard. I struggle with this. I am not an optimist by nature. I'm fairly pessimistic and it's taken me nearly a decade?? to get to a point where I'm not constantly belittling myself or others. When I started to work on my perspective of the world, the pessimistic thought-processes slowly receded. They are still there, but not to the degree that it controls my life as it used to. For me, being pessimistic also meant that I was never living in the present. I was too focused on what has happened and what may happen in the future. I forgot that I had to live for the moment.

I know it sounds corny, but mantra's really help. For instance, I don't have the best self-esteem about my body but I will look in the mirror and tell myself that I am beautiful the way I am. Sometimes repeating to myself that "it's okay" is enough to calm myself down if something stressful has happened. As 'religious' as I may be, I've found that 'giving my worries to God' and not carrying the whole burden helps. I am still accountable for my behavior, but I don't spend so much time stressing about something that may have gone wrong.

I also believe that WE can cause episodes to be more severe. If you have a positive outlook it can be easier to recover from an episode. It is also easier to be more proactive in maintenance to prevent an episode from happening.

I don't know how logical I am. @_@