'supporting each other through really tough times'

fuddle

We all sound so blimmin' peeved off with the world and life in general. To just open the curtains of a morning and think 'yes, life is great' is very much understated.

I'm in a do ward spiral myself and recognise the warning signs so much so that I've hunted out my 5HTP (natural seretonin boosters) to try to stave off the anti depressants. I've been 6 months clear and a lot more stable since coming off them than I was on them, although I was 'happier and content' while on them.

I would like to ask you all about SAD if I can? Can you suffer from it in the summer/spring months, I mean when it's grey and awful, cold winds and raining as opposed the springlike/sun filled days. What do you do to stave off SAD, how is it treated?

OS matters then and disaster really. I left the SC on the warm setting over night and it now has curry burned to the sides. It was one of those simple things that pushed me over the edge to years this morning.

One happy thing is that DH has spoken to his dad's partner about us cancelling our visit next week because of her losing her mum this week. She told him not to dare cancel and that she would like us to visit. So I'm very lucky in that I can have a break and stop wallowing.

PS I've ran out of my chicken leg/liver/rice mix I make as dog food so needed to give Alfie porridge for his breakfast. Honestly the fuss he's made in waiting for it to cool was unreal! Dog food making is on the cards today, he's lucky as he's getting diced lamb in this mix. It really helps keep the cost down if I do it basically with smaller portions, topping up his bowl with our left overs (meat and veg kind of leftover not curry of course much cheaper then store bought tins but I am conscious that I should get some emergency tins in.

That's another thing, symptom of what I'm feeling right now, I'm back to prepping in my head for all eventualities. The need to food hoard is overwhelming at the moment along with first aid kits and needing to add to my very large pile of blankets. The need to protect my bubble occupies my head space and its doing my head in!

Hey, positive - at least I recognise it. Would you give in to the need of getting stuff in to feel safer or try fight it because 'you're strong' even though you know it will lessen the anxiety if you do get the stuff in? So hard. I think too much!

Pops what on earth are those officers doing looking so closely at a perfectly good room, under a table cloth. Deary me. There's one thing I guess all of us in renting have to remember and that is we all have to jump through hoops to keep the house they choose to rent to us. It's up to them and we have to play by their rules, same as private renting, in fact you'll have more freedom in your set up than I do with mine. Still, I'm not at all keen on the idea of someone inspecting belongings in a room that is absolutely fine and to be honest, so what if you use a box as a bedside table

D&DD

I'm happy Fuddle :D <- see
aw you sound fed up today I agree the weather doesn't help but know nothing at all about SAD so can't help on that front I'm afraid.

Blimey Pops if they came in to inspect my house I think they'd think I'm a tesco warehouse at the mo :eek: Only just caught up on your saga with them hope the visit goes well.I'm hoping that its just a new initiative to support tenants like we have here on our estate they may not have explained things properly if its a new thing they're probably learning themselves..

kezlou

ooh lynn your making me so jealous!!!
all we have is rain, grey clouds and wind!:mad::mad::mad:

Whilst my dad was over yesterday we were having a chat about the price of everything, he started it off by telling how livestock and bird feed has gone up by 100% in the past two months.
His supplier is selling below the rrp so isn't making a profit at all, they reckon its because of the rubbish season of weather the past two years. Its destroying everything, my father has pigeons,a goat, dogs and rabbits so he's literally working to feed them.

He's going to try and find a rotivator so we can dig up his allotment to start growing things again. He used to grow all sorts when i was younger but gave it all up when my adoptive mum because very ill about 13 year ago. The allotment he has took on is completely trashed so needs to be cleared from scratch.
SAid everything is rising and the farm suppliers he goes to have them that most of the crop they have planted have not even risen and all the trees are about two months behind.

so i'm going to take up all the weeds ready for rabbits and said to him i'll keep all scraps if he promises to come and the collect the peelings. He also finally agreed to come and eat more at ours. He's a sweetheart and won't impose on anyone instead he trys to PAY me to feed and do things for him. To which i end up fuming up at him so he gives the money to kids or puts it back in his wallet instead. Basically his family and my bio mum take the mick out of him and charge him for all sorts. Which is i can't / won't do, as its sickening.

Thanks it was nice that my friends father remembered me, i'm quite surprised as i only met him a few times. His wife is the school admin so i've know her for about 10 years from the school, poor woman used to see me everyday!

Kidcat - don't feel guilty hun, theres nothing you could have done. Just try to put it out of mind and focus on the now and enjoy them. When i have into the charities and the groups who support the under 25 yrs it amazing. There's one in the Tees Valley / North East England called Sancutary and are supposed to be fab. Offering support with accommodation, groceries, jobs, hobbies you name it they are there ready and have 24 hr assistance. Someone who attends one of the groups ds2 attends recommended it to a few people and said they great. Her son is 15yrs but is having a transition period from secondary school to sixth form and apparently they are offering a mentor service to make the transition easier. Apparently the mentor is fantastic and has been working them since December 2012 and will continue through to July 2014 so her son has the continuity for the first of college. They also said if her sons wants to change he can at any time and said if her son wishes to have the same mentor all the through college etc he can. Not sure if this any kind of reprieve for you when he's older.

Enjoy Lego land, our children want to go, just working out finances so we can try and go this year.We need a break badly from everything.

fuddle

Too much doom and gloom 3Ds, going to take a leaf out of the other toughies book and not put on the news.

I wonder if councils/HA's are getting twitchy because of all the major cases of hoarding been in TV recently. What we need to know is if the next inspection (and not satisfactory) does it mean that there's a need and help will be given to sorted or does it mean the tenancy is in trouble? What that particular HA states on their website is that they want families to keep their homes and these officers are more like trouble shooter for the good of the tenants.

Pops if you free cycle your stuff rather than waiting to tip it or send to landfill it can be gone within a day or two.

Possession

D&DD wrote: »

Possession my youngest scratched a nasty chickenpox spot on his belly when he was in nappies and sadly still has a nasty crater right next to his belly button now and he's almost 15.Is it somewhere that shows

I don't know if you've ever seen a shingles rash, but it's as if all the chickenpox spots all over your body have been transferred together to one place. In DD's case it was a 10 cm wide blotch which stretched half way round her torso. So not normally showing but definitely in a bikini/tankini.

Kidcat I completely understand reading the report was devastating for you but please don't blame yourself, you couldn't have changed anything and you've been fighting his corner for a long while now.

[Deleted User]

OK very big HUGS all round to anyone that needs them, not rationed folks, take as many as you need as often as you need them, I'll keep the supply topped up from now on!!!!! It's understandable that you feel doom and gloomy - if that's the right way to say it, we haven't had any warmth to speak of except the last bank holiday weekend or any nice consistent sunny weather since last spring and even then there wasn't much was there? I think it is a symptom of the grey and cold that makes us feel low. I think life is also unpredictable and being on edge 'just in case' all the time is unsettling too, add to that all the little annoyances and problems that seem to make up everyday life these days and it's no wonder that positivity and that feeling of wellbeing are in short supply and when you throw into the melting pot poorly kiddies/parents/spouses/selves and being cash strapped in an ever more expensive world is it any wonder that there are some times when it all seems overwhealming?

Having said that I find these days that it isn't so much the big and grand things in life that give me a lift, it's the tiny things like seeing the first swifts flying around, having the lurcher materialise beside me and just give my hand a lick, not for anything in particular but because he loves me. Today my lift came from a very different source, I walk the lanes here with the Dockling every day and go past a row of beautiful old Oak Trees that have been neglected for so many years that some of them have fallen and been across the road, and they have broken branches and are just looking sad and this morning there were Tree Surgeons working and giving them a much needed haircut and general sort out, I asked if they were just doing the one tree they were working on and no, they said, we're doing the whole lot. It's not world changing but it made me so very happy, they are the heart of the village and to think they'll perhaps be there for another hundred years makes me very happy indeed!!! I also think that 24 hour news coverage is not helping lighten our lives, what happened to that poor soldier yesterday is beyond comprehension and barbaric beyond belief but to have the footage and coverage re-run and re-run and re-run again is unecessary, it changes nothing and just serves to emphasise the bleakness of the world and those who perpetrate such horrors are getting free publicity courtesy of all the news channels. I only watch the breakfast time news now and the 6 o clock one if we're having supper, otherwise it stays off, I find that helps me cope.

We have so much that is positive, we have each other and this medium to share and express our concerns also to share the humour and caring we all feel for each other, we can have the odd rant and be understood, sympathised with, helped, encouraged, we can laugh together more often than not, share good news, be happy for each other and sad when bad things happen. I know you are all part of my life that helps so much when I feel down or ratty and you all make life much more full and warm every day, it's like an extended family/friends circle and no matter how horrid it feels at that particular point, it makes me smile to think of you all, so keep collective chins up, whatever happens in life we've got each other haven't we? Cheers Lyn xxx.

kezlou

i dont believe it hails stoning and all the blumming quilts / bedding ive just nearly gpt dried are soaked again arghhhhhhh


just had to put the heating on to try and dry some ;(

kezlou

You are right lynn

Yesterday i looked at the lily plant in its pot and guess what it finally showing its little head, so pleased. I thought i had killed it when i repotted it back in January.

Well going to have a look at suet i have 2 packs of veg suet thats i've had for months and thinking right it needs to be used.
So going to look at some sweet and savoury recipes to choose, think i have about 450grams of the stuff.

[Deleted User]

Spot on KEZ I love Lilys, they are such lovely things and fill the whole house up with thier perfume when they're indoors, it's little things like that, that somehow are bigger than all the problems and vexations and keep me going through the tougher times in life, Cheers Lyn xxx.

fuddle

Such a well needed post for me Lyn and I'm sure so many other toughies and our silent reading friends (please come say hello ) will feel the warmth too. I've sat here, phone in hand, browsing OS all morning. I've done not a thing. I can't be arissed and that probably fuels the negativity.

I don't want to watch the news because it will be religious leader of this faith and MP of that constituency amongst historical events of unrest loosely connected with similar extremist behaviour. Non of which is news, all of which adds to the hatred which can only fuel an unstable situation.

So then, ignoring life outside my house I had best get that Hoover emptied, scrub the SC and look forward to locking the door with the girls, DH and pup at 6pm tonight... Oh ok then, ill finish crocheting my slippers too if you all insist