Norman

Well done for sharing mate.That took some guts.
If you tackle life with that fight you will be ok.
Do more of the things that make you smile and tell the people you love that you love them everyday.
Sometimes you need to take a step back and look at everything,by posting on here thats what you've done.
All the best brother?

Ok, here we go. 
I've typed this out a few times, then subsequently deleted it. 
I'm 29. From the outside I'm a strong, independent, fit, happy person. 
I'm not. 
I have everything. A brilliant, and I me a brilliant missus. A supportive family, a brilliant Dad, and a decent job. I go to the gym, I have friends etc.
However, when I wake up, I don't want to get up. I don't want to brush my teeth, again. I dont want to drive to work. I sit in my car and think about the awful 8 hours I have to endure. Its only Tuesday, how am I ever going to get through to Friday?  The same thing over and over again. The repetitve, pointless nature of life saps all energy from me. 
It's the pointlessness of life that gets to me the most. Everything seems so tedious, so painfully boring. 
I've been doing the gym for the last 5 years, and got jacked. But the pointless, repetitive lifting is not what I enjoy. I enjoy going to my garage, on my own, and being with myself in silence for 2 hours. No music, No noise. Just my thoughts. And It is then I find solace in my head. The questions of life disappear, the annoyance of other's actions and decisions become insignificant. But it will all be back in the morning.
I over-analyse, I over-think, and I struggle with day-to-day life. And only you lot know.  Which makes me wonder if this is a plea for help, or me deciding that this is the way I think, and I need to change it from now on. 
I'm not suicidal, but I know I feel deep, intense feelings of sadness. But they've gone by dinner time, because life isnt as bad as my head makes it out to be in the morning, at times.
Now to decide to hit the post button or not?

It has taken me many years to realise that I'm important to me.
As posted above, by @ilkleyram 
Whatever you take from the responses  here, make sure that one gets into your head. @Norman

Norman.
That must have taken some courage.
I read with great interest and most of the things you said resonate with me. It may help you to know that I am not depressed. I just have a really over analytical bluntness about everything in life that most people cannot understand.
Exactly like you said. I think differently to mainstream people and i get intense sadness and desolate feelings despite having a partner and kid. I am not on the same wavelength as most people i meet despite me being friendly and sociable and this could be the answer for you. Obviously I'm not a doctor or anything and I urge you to go to your GP if you feel that your issues are causing distress.
We are not all the same. It's ok to feel and think differently.
Best of luck.

Hi Norman
I'm just over twice your age but just like you I am hesitating about whether to press the send button or not because I am in no way qualified to express an opinion about you or what you describe - I don't know you or your circumstances or the people around you. I do know however how courageous you and Loughborough and Tony and everyone else is on this thread who are sharing their innermost feelings to a bunch of strangers on a forum. I come from a generation and a family who largely don't do that. So thank you for pressing send. Your way is much better than my way.
 The bad news is that one of the things that I have learnt over the years is that life is repetitive and routine. Each of us take the same journeys, do the same jobs, follow the same football team, go to the same way to matches, eat the same food, go to the same pub, drink the same beer, shop in the same shops, listen to the same music, watch the same films, develop particular interests, do similar things day in day out. Every day, every week, every month and at certain times, every year. Life is routine whether you are the most glamorous person you can think of, or whether you're me. That's life.
But
Life is not pointless. You have a brilliant missus and a great dad. They probably think the same about you. That's not pointless, that's important. You have a decent job. That's not pointless. Whatever it is that you do you will be interacting with others - colleagues, customers, suppliers - people you affect through whatever it is you do. People who will be grateful for what you do and how you do it. That's not pointless, that's important. You have friends. They're friends because they care about you. That's not pointless, that's something to be valued and nurtured. It's important.
And, it seems to me that you have some of the answers that you might be looking for. What's wrong with being in your garage for two hours in silence? I walk on Ilkley Moor every day with my dogs. I talk to them but mainly I talk to myself. I don't want anyone else with me. I want to be on my own. What's wrong with that? It does me good. Be kind to yourself and do what makes you feel good, never mind what you think anyone else might think. It has taken me many years to realise that I'm important to me.
But you also say that you struggle with day to day life and that you feel intense feelings of sadness and we are the only ones who know, and you hit the send button. I'm not qualified to help you, but you know what, if one of my friends said those things to me I would say find some help, someone who is qualified to assist - a GP, a counsellor, a friend. Not because what you are feeling and doing is pointless or wrong, but because you are important.
Good luck.

Glad you hit the button Norman, and l hope you feel better for doing so. Not sure l can give any great words of wisdom here but I am comforted by the details of your fifth paragraph. A chat or two with a good Counsellor l am sure will help with tackling the sadness and anxieties that you are experiencing. Best wishes.

Ok, here we go. 
I've typed this out a few times, then subsequently deleted it. 
I'm 29. From the outside I'm a strong, independent, fit, happy person. 
I'm not. 
I have everything. A brilliant, and I me a brilliant missus. A supportive family, a brilliant Dad, and a decent job. I go to the gym, I have friends etc.
However, when I wake up, I don't want to get up. I don't want to brush my teeth, again. I dont want to drive to work. I sit in my car and think about the awful 8 hours I have to endure. Its only Tuesday, how am I ever going to get through to Friday?  The same thing over and over again. The repetitve, pointless nature of life saps all energy from me. 
It's the pointlessness of life that gets to me the most. Everything seems so tedious, so painfully boring. 
I've been doing the gym for the last 5 years, and got jacked. But the pointless, repetitive lifting is not what I enjoy. I enjoy going to my garage, on my own, and being with myself in silence for 2 hours. No music, No noise. Just my thoughts. And It is then I find solace in my head. The questions of life disappear, the annoyance of other's actions and decisions become insignificant. But it will all be back in the morning.
I over-analyse, I over-think, and I struggle with day-to-day life. And only you lot know.  Which makes me wonder if this is a plea for help, or me deciding that this is the way I think, and I need to change it from now on. 
I'm not suicidal, but I know I feel deep, intense feelings of sadness. But they've gone by dinner time, because life isnt as bad as my head makes it out to be in the morning, at times.
Now to decide to hit the post button or not?

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of a very close mate going missing and eventually being found in a river. The intervening period has been tough for so many reasons and I've never really aired my true feelings until recently. 

To put it into perspective I caught the school bus with this guy every day for 7 years, played football and cricket together even after we finished school, went to gigs together and went on many nights out together - even born on the same day in QMC would you believe it. He introduced me to my then girlfriend and we were always kind of close. Then one January morning in 2015 I get back from a lecture to my missus sat on my bed telling me she has some news and I'll need to take a seat. Even though I knew what was coming, nothing ever prepares you for that news. Obviously this rocked me quite a bit having never really had anything like this happen to me before but over the next few months I kind of managed to get a grip on it. 

That autumn I moved to Germany for 6 months on a placement for my course at uni and this is where things began to get difficult. Earning very little it was hard to properly get out and about, especially when you're in a massive country where you literally know nobody. This was the beginning of my depression - nothing to this day quite compares to the loneliness I experienced and it was during this time, when I was alone with my thoughts that I began to think more and more of my friend. I was lucky in that I had a caring girlfriend who'd Skype me every night but once those calls ended I was alone again and even during the calls I began to feel like she wasn't there and that she was just on a screen and that I was hundreds of miles from anyone I knew and loved. I got through those months by telling myself that it would be over soon and I'd be home in a couple of months and it would all be ok. Wrong.
Once back in the UK I had another internship lined up - unpaid except my expenses, meaning I had to work a second job to earn some sort of income. This meant long days leaving the house at 7am and getting home at 1am with 30 minutes to get ready for my evening shift. I also worked weekends as it was a busy pub/restaurant which meant I had no real free time. It began to put a strain on relationship with my long term girlfriend and after 4 happy years together, stress drove me to ending it. At the time I guess I didn't realise the state I was in but looking back I can recognise how empty and soulless I had become. Again I got through this period thinking it would be fine and I'd be back at uni soon and I'll be able to relax. Once more I was wrong.
I pretty much immediately realised I had made a mistake ending things with my ex (who is also the same uni as me) and tried to reconcile things after she had spend a good 2 months trying to change my mind but I was too stubborn at the time. Unfortunately so much time had elapsed that she was no longer interested, despite my best efforts. She insisted on wanting to be friends but claimed to not want a relationship at the time, meaning we spent loads of time together on what I feel was false pretenses in many ways. This wasn't helped by my issues of inferiority and self confidence (its fair to say I was punching with this girl) which was one of the causes of me ending things as I was convinced that sooner or later she'd sack me off for someone else. All this at the same time as trying to handle an insane workload on my course which is notoriously heavy in terms of the workload dragged me further down into a pit of despair.
It was a this stage that I began to realise I was at my lowest point. I was failing assignments or behind in some aspect and began to have really negative thoughts. I'm a fairly rational guy and always manage to find reason which prevents me from doing something daft but there has been a couple of times when I've quite literally been peering over the edge. I decided to get help and see someone (this was in November) through my university counselling service but they couldn't sort me out until the new year. I ended up having the worst Christmas ever, I just felt so alien and lonely even though I was with my family etc I just felt like I didn't want to be there. I came home between Christmas and New Year (being half Danish we spent Christmas in over there) and hoped I'd maybe be happier but nope, still felt awful and alone.
I'vended up having to take a break from my studies to get my head straight as the way I was going I'd have wasted my degree and most definitely found myself in a darker place than I am currently. Loneliness is such a killer, no one really seems to understand how it truly feels - the same goes for depression. People seem to think it's just a phase and that it'll pass but it doesn't work like that. Two years ago before my friend passed, I was an upbeat and optimistic person in every aspect whereas now I rarely manage to see the positives in many things. At that time I would've laughed anyone out of town who suggested I'd be in the situation I'm now in because I was so naive when it came to stuff like this.
Sorry for the essay just needed to get that off my chest.

On that; the women in my office on Slimming World who complain they've not lost any weight, but refuse to acknowledge they're still grazing on biscuits and treats all day. Who then get upset at me when I point this out. 
I will admit I am on said diet, I have stuck to it and lost a decent chunk of weight this past month, what helps has not been eating a pack of biscuits every day! 

Amen to that. Hair on head rapidly migrating to nose, ears and back......

Jim White on this day every year.  With his super excited attitude and his yellow ties, like it's a Christmas tradition...  What a nobber!!!

Anyone saying 24/7
Just shut up you f***wit

Id settle for not having to spend 30 mins with the bog brush and a bottle of domestos after. 
The pan usually  looks like the bbg pitch circa feb 1974

Do you know what really cheers me up? When I have a poo and then wipe, but there is no poo on the paper. It feels like my body is telling me that nothing will go wrong that day.

I've been through no end of forums dedicated to mental health and the likes but nothing comes close to this, it really sets this forum apart from any other I know. So therefore, having read everyone else's stories over the last few months and after finally acknowledging I have an issue, I will now pour everything out.
I've known for years that something has been wrong with me, but the last few days have just certified it. I'm 22, recently graduated and have now moved back home as I have a graduate job close to my family home. The issue with this is I'm not exactly mad about the job, the people are not the most welcoming and all of my previous school friends and the likes now live away. I go to work and I go home, that is as exciting as it gets. 
Last year saw a range of little blips come up which I didn't think affected me too much, with my uncle's dementia and constant hospital stays probably the most notable. What's really done it for me though is the relationship with my girlfriend, who is still at university. I've been with her for three years and it's been great (she's even seen Derby play twice the lucky thing) but a mixture of the distance and the loneliness has changed things to the point where she's told me that she's not sure if we're still working like we did. I've found myself becoming needy, completely ignoring the fact that she's got her own life with new friends and a part-time job. We planned to build a life together after uni and I'm hoping that can still be done because even though we're only young, it's been an incredible time that I don't think needs to be given up. I'm trying to tell myself that it's the fact we've gone from living together to living 80 miles apart, with only a few months until we can go back to how we were. Unfortunately, my head doesn't really want to listen to what I say for too long. 
I don't know if depression or anxiety or just general loneliness is my problem, but I do know that I'm not meant to be feeling like this, especially at such a young age. I've got a doctors appointment booked for next week which I'm strangely looking forward to, purely to try and change things around. I know in comparison to others my problems might be nothing and I apologise if I seem dramatic or anything but it just seems after months and months of trying to contain everything, it's all just come to a head now. I've been able to speak to my parents and girlfriend over the last few days which has at least helped. This has been a very soppy post and as such I apologise to anyone who has managed to read it all the way through! 
 

Hopefully I'm not too much of a burden to the people following this thread, but as a fairly regular reader, barely ever poster I thought I would finally contribute
Coming out of 2016, I can safely say it was the worst year of my life so far. Yes, time is arbitary, and the 365 days of 2017 aren't guaranteed to be any better, but it does provide a spell of time to quantify my feelings. 
I've suffered family loss, the break up of a relationship with the person I loved more than anyone else, the months of getting over her only for her to get in touch and subsequently mess me around whilst seeing someone else that she's now in a relationship with. 
All of this combined with being stuck in a job I hate and am probably overqualified for lead me to the pint of self destruct. 
During all this time I had to persuade myself (and take the advice of the people that care about me) to go to the doctors and speak to someone, and admit that the depressive feelings I had had been there for 6/7 years. What I thought was just part of my personality, who I was, was actually an underlying issue that needed addressing for years. 
The prescribed medication seemed to help me quite a lot. Whether that was purely a placebo effect or not is anyone's guess, but I wholeheartedly advise anyone feeling low to find someone to console in.
I guess, other than being able to get some stuff off my chest, that is the overriding point of this post. Don't ever allow yourself to feel like you're alone. There are so many resources available to help you and so many people that will understand
 
 
 

Missus' childhood friend gets married. So that's already £200+ for stag weekend with loads of blokes you don't know or like...similar expenditure for missus on the hen-do BEFORE you even start. Then £150 for hotel for the wedding, £150 for new dress/shoes for her, £50 for present... £80 on overpriced drinks on the day. Listen to loads of speeches from people you don't know whilst starving and uncomfortable (too tight suit as you refused to spend even more money) sat with people you don't know..except from one bloke and his missus who they probably think you got on ok with on stag-do. Crappy disco and hanging around until you can slip away and get to bed. 
What's not to like?
 

Oh yeah, well said.
We have a competition on how young and how expensive we can lavesh phones upon them, I am currently receiving the cold shoulder because I have refused to upgrade my daughters perfectly perfect phone for the latest phone that Izzy's mum has bought her, I have restricted data roaming and tethered her WiFi to stop her zombifying behavior and actually teaching her to speak to her parents once in a while, I would ban any mobile phone to anyone under the age of 18 

"2016 is terrible because so many celebrities have passed away."
No. The advent of television, film, and mass media in general in the early to mid part of the 20th century simply means there are more old famous people than ever before. Celebrities and public figures will continue to die at a similar rate in the future because time doesn't care if you've been on the telly or not.

Jeez! Start running now mate!

Loving the " emergency chairs"

Rebumping this thread. Getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner 

Stupid signs on public toilets, particularly in bars.
Just put men/women, not an artfully drawn representation of the sexes which means the square root of fook all to someone bostin for a piss.
It's not the Krypton Factor, if I have to sign that register again because of it I'll swing for someone.

Worse than lorries overtaking each other in dual carriageways: Lorries having to overtake cars whose stupid ****** drivers aren't capable of driving at more than 55mph. GET OFF THE ROAD IF YOU CANT KEEP UP WITH LORRIES??
Also stupid drivers (female in my recent experience) who fail to look for a gap and match speed with the traffic flow when joining a motorway / dual carriageway and end up stopping at the end of the slip road and have to then wait ages for a massive gap. Got behind these idiots twice this week joining the A1. I'm only on it for 5 miles on my commute from Newark but the number of fools I see is incredible.