hello rainbowzz
thanks for the reply

I tend to get very anxious during the beginning of the semester. I should start to feel better as the semester progresses. I also find that I am more motivated to study as the semester goes on, which is nice. Classes just started on August 27th. Math and Chemistry are not bothering me very much. Those are my strong areas. It is in English and History that I am going to have more trouble. If I can pass those two classes, I can be done with his English for the rest of my life. It will also be nice to get some liberal arts credits like history and psychology out of the way. I have a meeting with my psychiatrist on Thursday and I am writing down some issues to discuss with her. She is planning on prescribing Effexor XR. I am excited to give it a go. I have been having a hard time lately. I hope that things will start to go smoother as the semester progresses. I also hope that I can stop taking so much Lorazepam. It does help, but it is also highly addictive. I think by this time in October I will be feeling much better and I will be able to get into a "groove" and the semester will start to fly by. I just have to try to keep up with the work and take it week by week. I am going to library soon to check out a book on meditation. I already checked this book out last year and read it, but I think it would be helpful to read it again and practice some of the exercises that they give you. I believe that meditation is the greatest stress reliever of all. It is too bad that so people know how to do it effectively.

I think that I am going to ask for a therapist during my psychiatry appointment on Thursday. I had a therapist for a year but unfortunately he had to retire in July and he left me therapy-less. I thought that I might be able to go without a therapist for a little while, but once school started I began to become exposed to more stress. I realized that a therapist could help me to cope with this stress to make sure that I do not break down and fail all of my classes or end up back in a mental institution.

I think that I should also get more sleep at night. I should take 100 mg of diphenhydramine hydrochloride at 8-9 o'clock and I should be ready for bed by 11 o'clock. I also should start taking naps. It is hard to think straight and be happy if you are tired. I just need to be sure to take the sleeping medication early enough or else I will have a nasty hang-over in the morning and I will be unable to do anything.

I was listening to late night radio in my bed a couple months ago. It must have been about 2 o'clock in the morning and All-Night with Jason Smith was on ESPN Radio. He was talking about how sometimes you outgrow your friends. You may have a certain group of people that you hang out with in high school. There may come a time when you outgrow these friends and you need to "ditch" them. He talked about his own experiences with this and he said that his group of friends did not have any plans after high school and all they really wanted to do was smoke. Jason wanted to go on to college, so he ditched them.

During the show, Jason also takes e-mails from listeners and he occasionally reads them on the air. Jason read several e-mails from people who shared their experiences with ditching their friends. Then Jason read an email from a man who said that while listening to Jason's show that night he realized that he was the one who was ditched by his group of friends. He did not realize this until Jason brought up the topic on his show that night. He then went on to write that his life had gone no where and that he wanted to turn it around. He said that he was going to go back to school and try to get his life back on track.

I just thought that I would share that with you. I don't know why I remember this.

Thanks for the reply.