Never enough hours in the day.

[Groggy]

Hi Dave, life comes at you in waves and you learn to brace yourself after a while. Take things one at a time and decide what your priorities are, then deal with them first.

If you need a hand to get things done then let me know, I'm just up the road, also, I hear it isn't going to rain over Christmas

[rsser]

What kind of communication do you have with the missus? Some of what you're feeling should be shared if poss.

And clinical depression is not something that you can will yourself out of. If you have it you need help.

If not, get a dog to kick. .... (just joking). Carve out a bit of fun time for yourself. All work and no play is a pox. Try to spin a new attitude to make play out of some of the stuff that would be good to have an outcome on anyway.

FWIW I've found regular heart pounding exercise a good natural anti-downer. Doesn't take long; creates energy and clears the mind.

[jimbur]

What kind of communication do you have with the missus? Some of what you're feeling should be shared if poss.

And clinical depression is not something that you can will yourself out of. If you have it you need help.

If not, get a dog to kick. .... (just joking). Carve out a bit of fun time for yourself. All work and no play is a pox. Try to spin a new attitude to make play out of some of the stuff that would be good to have an outcome on anyway.

FWIW I've found regular heart pounding exercise a good natural anti-downer. Doesn't take long; creates energy and clears the mind.

Perfect advice.
Cheers, Jim

[kman-oz]

And clinical depression is not something that you can will yourself out of. If you have it you need help.

That's not entirely true actually. Clinical depression can encompass various forms, including the form I was diagnosed with in my teens; Dysthymia. My initial therapy was medication based but didn't help much. After 12 months I elected to seek treatment from a phsycologist, which was considerably more effective. The key in my case was to attempt to gain power over my circumstances any way I could. Talking about it helps, sharing it on a public forum helps, little nuggets of wisdom like the one from Richard helps too.

I've just start cycling again after a break over winter, this will help too.

As for sharing with the missus, she's got more than enough on her plate at the moment. Under normal cirumstances this would never have even come up. These are, as you might expect, abnormal circumstances.

If you need a hand to get things done then let me know, I'm just up the road, also, I hear it isn't going to rain over Christmas

That's a very kind offer Greg. I think I'll basically put everything on hold for a couple of months anyway and just do the bare essentials like everyone's suggesting. Fix the leaking tap, replace the sticky lock on the door, leave the deck until I have spare time... that sort of thing.

[hughie]

The simplest advice I can give is that 'all things come to pass' and pass they do.

I have had my share of ups and downs with family and friends, Death, suicide, drugs,divorce, deportation and so on.

All of which have come and gone. One trick I have learnt that does help to remember and do.

Is that no matter how bad things are theres some poor blighter out there worse off.

The other look around for some body you can help, fix the your elderly neighbours fence or what ever assistance you can render to those around you.

This has a twofold effect of getting your thoughts off your problems and really gives somebody else a lift.

I have done this for most of my life and it works.

[kman-oz]

*Insert large sigh of relief here*

Happily our beautiful daughter was born happy and healthy with ten fingers and ten toes on the 20th of November. All went reasonably well and aside from a mandatory stay in the ward we were home quickly and settling in. LOML is healing very well and is back to almost full capacity, considerably more quickly than I expected too. Try as I might I haven't been able to restrict her to light duties.... willful beasts, women.

Believe it or not I actually got outside and made some progress on the entertainment area for the first time in months! First day back at work today and I'm looking forward to coming home to a full house

Thanks for listening folks!

Dave.

[rhancock]

Woohoo! Congratulations! Of course, without pictures, it didn't happen!

There's always plenty of people on this forum ready to support you, so just yell out - whatever the issue. Our current issue with our 5 month old is constipation, the cure for which apparently is a finger stuck where the sun don't shine!

[kman-oz]

Been there too, very pleasant. There are plenty of good dietary fibre suppliments for infants, though the trouble can be getting it down them.

[kevjed]

Well done and pleased to hear things are looking up.
Speak to you soon.
Kevin

[Groggy]

Great news Dave, congratulations

[Enfield Guy]

Congratulations. It's all ahead of you. Stay safe and keep smiling.

Cheers