My Support Network

immoral_angeluk

Having just come out the other side of postnatal depression first I just want to give you a big :grouphug: but I completely agree with the others that youneed to find something you enjoy.. for me it was playing my bass.. anything for a bit of 'me' time..

chevalier

Hi there
Yep depression is a sod. I am not sure that I am over it yet. Keep having crap happen to me but at least I now don't want to run away (literally).

However one thing you might want to look at is dog walking at your local rescue centre. You get to meet loads of dogs that are looking for a friendly face, and you get lots of endorphin raising exercise walking/playing with them
chev

misscomickat

Yes the dog walking is a good idea. At the greyhound rescue centre near me, you can sponsor a dog, and they are long-term dogs who are blind or can't be rehomed for some reason. You can go and walk them and groom them, and they send you birthday and valentines cards!

peb

Swimming is great - one of the pound type shops was doing a camerea and goggles for £1; I was not sure of them (being a speedo type of girl) but I tried them and they were more comfortable than zoggs.

So far as Egyptology is concerned our local college is running a ten week course for very little and this would mean that you would meet people as well. I am however really lucky as I can drive to the colleges in Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds in half an hour so there is loads of choice (though I still cannot find one in German which fits with my schedule)

Most areas have real book clubs and also we have a local history group which sounds interesting - but too early a start for me.

Is there a local community newsletter or church magazine which has activities in?

I use a combination of swimming (but the lcoal pool has been shut for a year or so), reading (you do not want to know how much I spend on books), walking - not too strenuous but outdoors in teh countryside works for me and music. Nothing too intense but light classical - Mozart rather than Bach.

Hopefully something will appeal from the suggestions you are getting.

Lucy1982_2

Wow thanks guys!

zcrat41 - I am so jealous! Where did you study that?

I will have a look at some of the local courses, I'm based in Wiltshire so not really near any big cities. I think I need to sit down later and make a list of everyone's suggestions and work through them until I find something I enjoy.

I don't want to put to much pressure on myself, just have a giggle and do something a bit different.

In Search of Me - I think your right, sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed by things that I really don't know how to deal with it. I guess this will stop with time. But I think making some lists of things I want to do and things I need to do will help as my memory is so bad at the moment.

I think like all of us I worry about getting into more debt, because I either want to eat chocolate (bad for my diet) or spend money (bad for everything else!)

Your all great you know that.

In_Search_Of_Me

One thng though - dont do too much! Just start with one thing, try it for a bit & then try something else or it will be too much too soon! Baby steps me lovely! Hugs for you!

zcrat41

I was at UCL - had a great 3 years faffing about behind the scenes at the British Museum, it was amazing. Not particularly useful for the real world though, there weren't that many Indiana jobs about (and yes, that was my main motivation for spending 3 years studying and getting into debt - Indy!)

I'm in Bristol and have a friend who's studying for a Masters in an Egyptology related thing - maybe they have something there??

Good luck with it all!

Lucy1982_2

I wont I promise!

I thought about studying Egyptology at Uni, but decided to go for English instead. I just want to do it for the pleasure of the thing.

Lucy1982_2

How does this sounds as a nice gentle start:

One of the shops in town has 3 for 2 on all it's christmas gifts and some of them are make and do's. One is a paint your own piggybank (i'm thinking I could use it as a 'fun' pig) and I'm sure that there was stuff like calligraphy etc. None of it is expensive and I thought that it would occupy me over the evenings.

I thought gentle would be a good place to start, then I can build up as I feel a bit more confident.

taka

What about something like Pilates or yoga? Very relaxing and calming and helps to de-stress me! I've got depression too (amongst other things). I've been seeing a counsellor recently and have been practising breathing techniques and ways of caming myself down etc (as I have panic attacks too) so I dug out a pilates DVD I was given ages ago but had never really used.

I find it is very relaxing and calming and takes my mind of other things while I do it as well as generally helping to strengthen my body. The (gentle!) exercise is supposed to help lift your mood too. If you are going to try a free dvd rental trial thing I think some of them (definitely lovefilm... not sure about any others) rent out pilates/yoga or general fitness dvds so you may be able to try it out if you are not sure before parting with any money!

Good luck!