Happy New Year!

The festive season is the traditional time for a bit of excess, too many long lies, too much cheese (my main festive vice) and too much drinking. January is the traditional time for taking stock, getting houses in order, grasping bulls by the horns, stopping rot, putting your best foot forward, detoxing, shaping up and generally resolving to be an all round better, fitter, leaner but, hopefully, not too much meaner me.

I prefer to aim for general trends rather than the hard and fast rules that, in my case, lead to inevitable failure and recrimination almost as certainly as eating two pound of stilton leads to buying larger sizes in the January sales. The only resolution I have ever managed to keep was to “provide more accurate feedback in audience participation situations” i.e. I clap louder if I like it. Hardly, life changing stuff.

For me January is more about getting back to where I was before the festive season took its toll rather than about biting off more than I can chew (or deciding to chew less than I can survive on). There’s not point in spending too much time beating yourself up nor in setting unrealistic goals.

Whilst there are a few areas that could certainly do with a bit of work and attention, the new year is also good time to look recent successes and the things that are going well.

So, how is it all going?

Well, the painting a day thing has taken a bit of a back seat lately, partly because I tidied up my painting equipment for Christmas. However, before Christmas, there was definite improvement from when I started.

As for getting the house in order - substantial DIY progress was made in the latter part of last year but there is still a long way to go. There are numerous other little niggly things that need sorting. I’ll have to start picking these off one by one before I get overwhelmed and decide to spend all day playing online Mahjong instead.

Grasping bulls by horns - I should write a new CV and make a new portfolio just in case any exciting job opportunities arise. I have also entered a couple of bike races.

Stopping rot - my sleeping pattern has deteriorated into random chaos, so I really need to get that sorted out as it is one of the things most likely to send me over the edge. I am also having lots of weird dreams. It’s the cheese again. When I’m not suffering cheese induced nightmares, I’m just dreaming about goat cheese instead.

Putting my best foot forward - I went out on New Year’s Day to check the part of the National Cycle network that I have been assigned as my volunteer work. I got a resulting warm glow, and not all of it brought about by being lashed by stinging rain.

That’s all well and good but I really must make more efforts to use my car less; I could definitely make more journeys by bike. I might even get a foldable bike for ‘multi-modal transport’. Although, looking at the rain today, I’m extremely glad I don’t have to cycle to the station in order to commute home. Yes, I confess, I am a fair weather bike commuter.

Detoxing, shaping up - there were definitely a few liver bashing, hangover inducing drinking sessions over Christmas, so, although I’m not giving up drinking altogether for January I’m definitely cutting down. I’m also resolving to eat less cheese. I have, however, being doing pretty well on the fibre and the five a day so it’s not all bad news.

The weather hasn’t been great but I’ve been out whenever possible just to get some daylight. Although I have a daylight simulation light at work, there is still much more light even in weak winter sun than can be got from a lightbox.

I had a really enjoyable session at the gym yesterday, it really lifted my spirits.

How is life in general? - my job is ok, my friends are not only very good friends to have but also all in reasonable fettle, my love life is better than it has been for years and my physical health is good too, even my hip seems to have settled down.

As for my mental health - despite wobbling a bit due to too many late nights, long lies, alcohol binges and cheese fests, I would say I’m doing pretty well. The festive season is always tricky, mostly because being on holiday at that time of year totally messes with my routine. There is also a temptation to spend lots of money both before and after Christmas. I am very fortunate as a bipolar that my family, great believers in waste not want not, have instilled in me a frugal nature that seems to overpower my desire to spend most of the time (except when it comes to cheese and books).

That said, I did get a new haircut to keep myself feeling chipper and a shocking pair of new boots.

Pretty much life is good and I have much for which to be thankful.

So the general trends I will be aiming for are: keep on top of the day to day things that need to get done - DIY; paperwork; MOTs etc; get back into the painting; keep up the exercise and get outside in daylight as much as possible; go to bed at a sensible time and get up in the morning even if it is freezing and dark and I really, really don’t want to; drink less; do more new things like bike races and climbing; carry on with the volunteer work; be less grumpy and, above all, eat less cheese.

My main strategy for post Christmas blues - blame it all on the cheese.

Week commencing 01/01/07

Medication: 5 mg valium
Exercise: 4
Alcohol: 20 units at least!
Anxiety: Some really bad mornings because of too much alcohol and caffeine and not enough sleep.
Anxiety Level (0-10): 5
Number of Panic Attacks:1
Severity of Panic Attack (0-5):2
Depression: a bit up and down due to feeling a bit tired and washed out but definitely improving with fresh air and exercise.
Depression Level (0-5): 2
Mania: Again the messed up sleeping pattern doesn’t really help o I’ve been wobbling about a bit but it doesn’t feel like anything that won’t sort itself out fairly quickly.
Mania Level (0-5): 2

Summary

Too much more time off work and there would be a serious risk of everything going haywire with too much booze and not enough sleep. I went back to work earlier than I had planned to just to get myself back into a routine.