The dark funk of depression...

[Mr Panda]

Come up to Glasgow.i've a spare room.
Likely to be raining and you wont understand the lingo.

Now that would be a laff - Easyjet for a tenner.

And - allthough he has a spare room he has the world's collection of woodworking equipment in it, which is unusual for a butcher


.......alternatively - go find a nice big pair of boobies to play with

 

[velomaniac]

I have a rapidly changing mild form of manic deppression, not officially diagnosed. I can go from the depths of despair to heights of elation and back several times in 24hours. At either extreme I'm not a person you could put up with for any length of time and thus I try to stay in the middle ground. To do this requires regular sleep, healthy diet, excersise, avoidance of too much caffiene and too much alcohol, interaction with friends, trying to see a way forward etc but not drugs other than some Saint Johns Wort tablets through the deep darkness of winter.

We are all martyrs to our emotions but we can master them, keep fighting LGF, you make many a retrobiker smile

 

[fagin]

When things feel bad just remember that 95% of people in the world have really crap lives and would give their right ball (or female equivalent) to be in your position.
Doesn't necessarily make you feel better, but puts things into perspective a bit.

 

[drystonepaul]

Unfortunately there is still a significant amount of stigma when it comes to discussing mental health. Which is surprising when you consider the statistics...
'1 in 4 people will suffer from some form of diagnosable mental health condition in any given year.'

For the last few years I've been working for an organisation which aims to reduce the stigma associated with mental health problems through providing information, support and education to those who are affected by such issues. I've done a fair bit of work with a variety of people with a variety of conditions including depression, OCD, self harming, anger management and Psychosis.

It is perhaps slightly ironic then that despite all this information and support I have also recently been attending Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) sessions for my own Clinical Depression and General Anxiety Disorder.

Depression is as much an illness as a common cold, and is just as treatable. I've always resisted pharmaceutical remedies for myself, but depression, although perhaps never fully curable, is certainly manageable.
It's sometimes completely debilitating effects can be minimised and overcome.
Some of the key aspects to this are how to deal with negative thought patterns and habits, exercise, the effect of diet, and controlling routine and sleep patterns.
Of course treatments and their effectiveness will vary from one individual to another.

I'm at a very early stage of my treatment but I am already able to see some of the benefits. Part of my doctor's orders is to get plenty of regular exercise in which means I'm obligated to get out on my bike. Which is of course great.
Initially the hardest thing though was finally admiting to myself after many, many years that I had a problem and that I needed help.

I visited my GP and was referred to my local Psychological Therapy service.

It's been scary and emotional for myself and for those close to me, but I know I've done the right thing.

 

[legrandefromage]

Thanks for the replies - my cheeks are red from the face slaps.

Looking at it from a completely detached point of view, it is just an imbalance of chemicals in the brain and thankfully I'm aware of that otherwise it could be a turn to drink and drugs (done that).

Describing it as a 'black dog' is perfect, its sitting here wagging its tale at me waiting for me to throw the metaphorical stick.

The difficult part is not to let it get the better of me or anybody else that is aware of it.

This missus has just come in with the shopping - she's lovely!

 

[dek1165]

Probably doesn't help you, but when I'm feeling a bit miserable with life I log onto retro bike and look for the ramblings of a chap called LGF. When I find them they always brighten up my day

 

[gibbleking]

start with finding a job you enjoy that cheers you uo instead of filling you with dread.im very lucky...i love my job teaching cycling ect .it makes me happy when im down being surrounded by noisy enthusiastic monsters with huge grins ..its contaigeous ect.sometimes a lack of direction causes it so perhaps going back to learn a new skill at college would be fun.
if your ever in yarmouth/gorleston ect let me know and ill drag you along to a lesson or two and i dare you to leave without a huge grin on your chops.

 

[legrandefromage]

30 miles around Thetford has just about cured me....

 

[dyna-ti]

Emergency appears to be over.OK everybody,time to get back to your exciting,fun filled and meaningful lives

 

[Lysander]

Aye, ye can never downplay the importance of light- today f'rinstance, nice enough and warm, but cloudy, I got ready to go out for a spin, but didn't have that extra shove to set off............if it was sunny, I guarantee I would have.
Watched crap instead and reinforced the arse of a pair of cut off combats.......

PLUS!! I found a Japanese site which has how to's for rebuilding Ultegra 6400 STI units- I disassembled the rh shifter on mine ages ago when it stopped workin' properly- easy enuff to put back together at the time when ye see how it came apart, but I left it in bits, and now don't have a jar o' glue how it all goes back.........turns out, the fix is really simple- the lube they were given when assembled gets gunky very quickly, and the ratchet pawls use very small light springs, so they stop moving- ye just have to give them a good degrease and used a better lube. Not take them to bits. :x
'Course, they've still got white hoods, which are the silliest cycling invention known to man- the only white hoods I've ever used which didnae end up a mild piss yellow colour were on some exage aero brakes- seemed to be more of a polythene type material like staedtler erasers!