Tombo

This annoys me.
People who say others don't know what being depressed is.
My ex business partner who used to bellow at me "you don't know what depression is mate" if I ever intimated that I was feeling a bit down and things were getting on top of me.
Its people like him who make others not ask for help.  
Everyones situation is different, I don't think its a competition on who's the most depressed.  What can trigger one person will be water off a ducks back to others.
The short daylight hours are a massive contribution to. They certainly effect me.

This may only be semi serious, but there's a lot of truth in it. The great thing about having a passion like supporting a football team is that it makes you feel alive. If I stopped jumping for joy when a Derby goal hits the back of the net, or if I felt perfectly comfortable watching a goal drought-suffering Chris Martin step up to an equalising penalty against the league leaders, I'd absolutely seek help.
Right now, I live for the football at the weekend. And it still makes me feel alive. That puts me at ease quite a lot. Even the heartache at Wembley is an experience I wouldn't undo, because it was an experience of raw emotion and I'd hate to lose that.
Always enjoy the little things.

Mostyn,
Would you ever invite someone for Xmas day if it wasn't genuine?
I wouldn't.  It's an important day. A family day in an otherwise busy year. People are crazy busy all the other days and I can't see them messing Xmas up just to be nice.
Take the offer man. 
Bite the bullet. Take the branch.

This may only be semi serious, but there's a lot of truth in it. The great thing about having a passion like supporting a football team is that it makes you feel alive. If I stopped jumping for joy when a Derby goal hits the back of the net, or if I felt perfectly comfortable watching a goal drought-suffering Chris Martin step up to an equalising penalty against the league leaders, I'd absolutely seek help.
Right now, I live for the football at the weekend. And it still makes me feel alive. That puts me at ease quite a lot. Even the heartache at Wembley is an experience I wouldn't undo, because it was an experience of raw emotion and I'd hate to lose that.
Always enjoy the little things.

This may only be semi serious, but there's a lot of truth in it. The great thing about having a passion like supporting a football team is that it makes you feel alive. If I stopped jumping for joy when a Derby goal hits the back of the net, or if I felt perfectly comfortable watching a goal drought-suffering Chris Martin step up to an equalising penalty against the league leaders, I'd absolutely seek help.
Right now, I live for the football at the weekend. And it still makes me feel alive. That puts me at ease quite a lot. Even the heartache at Wembley is an experience I wouldn't undo, because it was an experience of raw emotion and I'd hate to lose that.
Always enjoy the little things.

This may only be semi serious, but there's a lot of truth in it. The great thing about having a passion like supporting a football team is that it makes you feel alive. If I stopped jumping for joy when a Derby goal hits the back of the net, or if I felt perfectly comfortable watching a goal drought-suffering Chris Martin step up to an equalising penalty against the league leaders, I'd absolutely seek help.
Right now, I live for the football at the weekend. And it still makes me feel alive. That puts me at ease quite a lot. Even the heartache at Wembley is an experience I wouldn't undo, because it was an experience of raw emotion and I'd hate to lose that.
Always enjoy the little things.

This is great by the way, thanks!
 
So onto my experience. I have people close to me that have suffered depression but I know that at least one of them reads this forum and I'm not sure it's my story to tell so I won't.
What I can tell you is my own experience about a year ago. I don't think I was depressed, but I felt kind of 'frozen'. I'm a history student at the University of Derby and when work piled up on me I just stopped. I didn't do anything for about two weeks. When I say didn't do anything, I mean really didn't do anything. I sat at my laptop, posted on dcfcfans, metaphorically phoned in a few dates with my girlfriend, and listened to music. I ate ready meals or pretty much just skipped evening meals entirely. Didn't go out, just couldn't be bothered. It was my first year at Uni and I was terrified of all the pressure on my shoulders and terrified of failing.
My girlfriend of the time, who I will always give credit for on this even though she's my ex, convinced me to see a counsellor. I really did not want to, because I felt like that's admitting that there's a problem. "I'm not stressed or depressed, I'm just lazy". Wrong. I needed to admit the problem. And the other one was "Come on, I'm just a student. There's people in this country breaking their backs working 12 hour shifts for crap pay". Wrong. We've all got our problems and comparing them to other people's problems just makes you feel guilty. Never feel guilty for how you feel, you didn't choose to feel that way so don't blame yourself.
I thought about it a bit and thought maybe my problem was that I had no real friends. I was quite well liked by people at Uni and by my flatmates, but nobody I could call a friend. So that's what I decided I needed help with. I was going to go to the counsellor and tell them about my poor social skills, and not at all mention this other crisis because that would be me just being mardy right?
As soon as I went there I just started to feel much better. Just talking to someone made me feel calmer and more secure. All of my problems came out there. The social anxiety, the "depressive behaviour", even the problems in my relationship with my girlfriend (which I believe gave us several more months together before it had to go tits up). Discussed everything and anything. It helped me an immense amount, I got back to doing my coursework and revision and met all my deadlines and remained on the course.
So I wasn't at rock bottom. I wasn't suffering depression. They don't come with a big stamp and mark you "DEPRESSED" when it happens. You just have to keep an eye out for the deterioration. I think I caught it early and managed to deal with it while it was still easy.
My advice is to see someone and talk to them. First things first about counsellors, they're not shrinks. They're not going to diagnose you and whack you on the happy pills. If that's what you need, they'll refer you to a proper shrink who will do that. In Continental Europe, seeing a counsellor is like getting a check-up. We should be emulating this attitude to mental illness. When I told people I saw a counsellor the reaction was "Why? Are you okay? What happened?" Which I understand. They just want to be there for me and that's reassuring. But what is implicit in that is that there had to be something seriously wrong. There wasn't, I just stopped myself as soon as I felt the decline.
If you found a physical problem - you found a lump right? You'd be straight down to your GP because you're not taking any chances, correct? Apply that same attitude to your mental wellbeing. Don't take any chances and assume it's going to get better. It might do, it might get better. But if it doesn't, you're playing a dangerous game. Take action.
 
Apparently, I'm a good listener. So I'm told. So I'll offer what many others have offered on here. If anyone - ANYONE - wants to talk, day or night, I'm here. No matter how well or not we know each other. No matter how well or not we've agreed on certain things on this forum. I realise it's a fairly empty offer because if you don't know someone why would you talk to them about your problems? But desperation works in mysterious ways and you can find people when you didn't even know you were looking. So for what it is worth, I'd like to listen if you want me to.

This is great by the way, thanks!
 
So onto my experience. I have people close to me that have suffered depression but I know that at least one of them reads this forum and I'm not sure it's my story to tell so I won't.
What I can tell you is my own experience about a year ago. I don't think I was depressed, but I felt kind of 'frozen'. I'm a history student at the University of Derby and when work piled up on me I just stopped. I didn't do anything for about two weeks. When I say didn't do anything, I mean really didn't do anything. I sat at my laptop, posted on dcfcfans, metaphorically phoned in a few dates with my girlfriend, and listened to music. I ate ready meals or pretty much just skipped evening meals entirely. Didn't go out, just couldn't be bothered. It was my first year at Uni and I was terrified of all the pressure on my shoulders and terrified of failing.
My girlfriend of the time, who I will always give credit for on this even though she's my ex, convinced me to see a counsellor. I really did not want to, because I felt like that's admitting that there's a problem. "I'm not stressed or depressed, I'm just lazy". Wrong. I needed to admit the problem. And the other one was "Come on, I'm just a student. There's people in this country breaking their backs working 12 hour shifts for crap pay". Wrong. We've all got our problems and comparing them to other people's problems just makes you feel guilty. Never feel guilty for how you feel, you didn't choose to feel that way so don't blame yourself.
I thought about it a bit and thought maybe my problem was that I had no real friends. I was quite well liked by people at Uni and by my flatmates, but nobody I could call a friend. So that's what I decided I needed help with. I was going to go to the counsellor and tell them about my poor social skills, and not at all mention this other crisis because that would be me just being mardy right?
As soon as I went there I just started to feel much better. Just talking to someone made me feel calmer and more secure. All of my problems came out there. The social anxiety, the "depressive behaviour", even the problems in my relationship with my girlfriend (which I believe gave us several more months together before it had to go tits up). Discussed everything and anything. It helped me an immense amount, I got back to doing my coursework and revision and met all my deadlines and remained on the course.
So I wasn't at rock bottom. I wasn't suffering depression. They don't come with a big stamp and mark you "DEPRESSED" when it happens. You just have to keep an eye out for the deterioration. I think I caught it early and managed to deal with it while it was still easy.
My advice is to see someone and talk to them. First things first about counsellors, they're not shrinks. They're not going to diagnose you and whack you on the happy pills. If that's what you need, they'll refer you to a proper shrink who will do that. In Continental Europe, seeing a counsellor is like getting a check-up. We should be emulating this attitude to mental illness. When I told people I saw a counsellor the reaction was "Why? Are you okay? What happened?" Which I understand. They just want to be there for me and that's reassuring. But what is implicit in that is that there had to be something seriously wrong. There wasn't, I just stopped myself as soon as I felt the decline.
If you found a physical problem - you found a lump right? You'd be straight down to your GP because you're not taking any chances, correct? Apply that same attitude to your mental wellbeing. Don't take any chances and assume it's going to get better. It might do, it might get better. But if it doesn't, you're playing a dangerous game. Take action.
 
Apparently, I'm a good listener. So I'm told. So I'll offer what many others have offered on here. If anyone - ANYONE - wants to talk, day or night, I'm here. No matter how well or not we know each other. No matter how well or not we've agreed on certain things on this forum. I realise it's a fairly empty offer because if you don't know someone why would you talk to them about your problems? But desperation works in mysterious ways and you can find people when you didn't even know you were looking. So for what it is worth, I'd like to listen if you want me to.

On the blue light point. Anyone can download a piece of software called f.lux for free.  It mirrors daylight and after two days or so of using it you are completely unaware that you are using it. Blue Light is a huge problem, even for people who don't think it is for them. I recommend everyone uses f.lux immediately. 

My old man had a couple of those SQ beers. Made him quite depressed. He went down, down, deeper and down.

I had a Bishops Finger yesterday. I was expecting bread and wine.