Andes up - who needs a rock to lean on? Rock on over here!

[ThatVikRinA22]

in honour of ed and her mountain ranges.....

welcome to thread 3 - this is a support thread for anyone needing a hand to hold while they get through depression or any other mental health problems - long term or temporary. All are welcome.

linky to old thread

Hello Ladies

ED you have every excuse to have a relaxed day after the Birthday fun.
I love the idea of a Bear party but sure can feel the angst of controlling excited wee girls with balloons and bears in a car .....then feeding them.. < goes to lie in darkened room > You are a star mum and did your daughter like her crochet animals ? I want a Kitty . x

Lem you are just fine as you are so ignore the twits . A lovely mum and fit and loved . x

Snowy how is the OU stuff going? And more importantly how are you feeling today? So right about pack mentality .

Nina so good to know that you have good empathetic psychiatrist at last ! You sound better and hopeful thank goodness. Small acorns do make an oak tree lovely lady .......small steps and roots in the ground .
Thank you for your words of kindness . x

Vicar dreamed last night of slinky furry friends . Did you get the hamster ? I know about hamsters oh yes I do .
Good to know you have some time off now to recover and think .

We the public need you . Good you have plan . Hug x

Hi to *CIQ and the Silvery Pussy Cat ........I feel warm when I read your posts .

off to get a ready meal out the oven cos I cant be arsed .

yep - dd got her hamster. its very placid and sweet.

i took the jewel sisters up to the bathroom for a run earlier - they are so clever - they wanted to get up high, they worked out they couldnt jump, so they used me as a bridge.....only took one missed jump to work it out.

the 2 little ones are still quite nervous, but friendly. Even dh likes to come and look at them when they are all piled up together to sleep....

right. best get going.

Hi vicar no sweat if you dont have time .
I am serious about being a kind owner to two rats maybe . So love yours and have googled the way to look after them etc .
I so miss having an animal to look after . Had dogs all my life but after my old collie died have been looking after my sons dog while he is on shift . But it isnt the same . My hamster was allowed full run of my house and heart .........and the phone wires but we dont talk about that oh no .

If you have time and it doesnt have to be now bless you ......can you give me some advice re cages etc .?

sorry for hijacking ladies x

I'm having a bit of an off day, but surviving that's the important thing.
I had hamsters and gerbils as a youngster, rats are supposed to be good because they're not nocturnal.

I hope everyone gets a good night.

Don't worry about hi jacking basset sounds like a great idea! How are you doing today? I think we really benefit from having pets. Simple love. We have a handsome Gray cat called archie who despite his long
sharp claws is very much loved.

Hi vicar I can imagine yr more pushed for time now but hope u can find the time when you want to post here.

ed good grief I felt tired just reading about your party! Hope you feel better for a restful day. I definitely had a better Wed thur fri last week as a result of spending Mon and Tues on the sofa.

Headache today and a bit wobblier, I think cos of busier last few days, tho still managed to get out.

snowy I can imagine it must feel v weird reading your psych letter. Hope you're doing okay now.

Hello to you everyone, finding it v slow to post on phone. .
Take care all x

You too Snowy have a good sleep .
I meet a very very old man on my walks who grasps my hand and says after asking how he is : Survival Basset .Survival.

You keep doing what you are doing Snowy . x

snowy cross posted. Good for you on the surviving front. Hope you get a good sleep.

CIQ a loved cat called Archie ..... got to post pic now or describe in detail Have you painted him ? Adore cats ..and dogs ...birds .....did I mention rats ?
Am ok . hope you are too x

Well after such a warm welcome I thought I might stay around for a while if that's ok.
Bassetfeet - I didn't mean to make you cry.....but I know what you mean. I feel sure we would be good friends if we could be, but one the other hand I like the anonymity of MN.

Snowymouse - hope you are ploughing on with the sociology module. I did an O level and A level in it (not at school) but at night school years after I left school. I did more of it when I did my social work course - again many years ago -1979 to be precise! I loved the subject cus it's about people and I love anything people oriented. It must be hard for you though, given that the drugs are making you hung over. Someone mentioned something about you reading the psych's letter. My CPN showed me the letter the "empathetic" pysch wrote about me, and it was fine till I came to the bit about me: "Mrs Tiggwinkle(!) was casually dressed and was a reasonably kempt elderly lady........it was the reasonably bit that got me - had a few laughs with friends over that. I don't feel elderly at 69 but I am as far as the NHS is concerned! You mention having a off-day today and that's the nature of the beast with mental illness isn't it, but it's sooooo good to know you are home. Are you going to the day hospital.

Thank you Vicar for your warm welcome and must keep popping in to see how the job is going - it's like reading a book and I need to know the next chapter.

CinQ - like the sound of your grey cat called Archie. I have 2 british shorthairs, brother and sister Cookie and Teddy. They mostly curl up together but have the odd "argument" that gets to a bit of paw bashing now and again! Incidentally - do you "colour in" - I do sometimes and have just sent for some adult colouring books from Amazon. I find it very relaxing, especially if I am trying to distract myself from how I am feeling.

Goodnight all.

i would dearly love you to stick around nana - ive missed you actually.

basset
this is the cage i have
they seem to like it

its big enough for 3 rats. ive added stuff to it to make it more interesting - ive added a
rope bridge
and
<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.monsterpetsupplies.co.uk/images/descriptions/sputnik-xl-4.jpg&imgrefurl=www.monsterpetsupplies.co.uk/p-15770-savic-sputnik-rat-house.aspx&h=278&w=450&sz=16&tbnid=ETlSByKNliH2kM:&tbnh=72&tbnw=116&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsputnik%2Brat%2Bhouse%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=sputnik+rat+house&usg=__t43G786E-VBBBYzXuAjTM_Xri9A=&docid=-jAmTruXGA5-5M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Yzt_UceAMYHCPK3JgMAD&sqi=2&ved=0CFkQ9QEwAg&dur=1220" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this suspended from the ceiling of the cage

they also have a wooden house on the ledge filled with bedding. and lots of old socks to line the sputnik....

the cage, while expensive, is excellent, with a huge door, the entire lid opens up, the feed bowl is excellent quality, though i didnt trust the water bottle was working so bought another....(£1.00!!) the cage is really good but very big....they need room though.

along with the hammock, ive also given them a bamboo tube with an old sock attached, and i hide various nuts in their shells around the cage for them to find - they like monkey nuts and hazel nuts the best. comically the walnut ended up in the litter tray.....i guess that said it all! i also got them a log tunnel....it bends however you want it to so it can be be a tunnel, or a ladder, or whatever you like!

they love chicken and banana, i also offer strawberry, apple and grapes.

they are like little dogs....pearl is the biggest and laziest, who will happily just sit on my shoulder....no biting now at all. i think she is probably about 4 months older than the babies....

the two baby girls are adorable but frisky! ruby is pearls shadow, always with her....amber is more confident and nosey.....all are incredibly clever.
Pearl is my girl though....i love that she will sit and walk around with me. the other girls want to be off exploring.

they are all fab. i adore them. they all have such personality and are very much individuals. ill try and post more pics for you....even dh who doesnt like them goes "ahhhhh" when he sees them all piled up together!

oh and i have a special wheel on order....its angled so it doesnt bend their spines.....

the cage is now full of toys so god knows where ill put it! my rodents are spoilt with a capital S.....

i love animals
i have my moggies (2) who leave the jewel sisters well alone....
and my dog who is slightly jealous so am having to make a huge fuss of her
and we now have Jubbly the hamster....

also thinking about getting a hedghog house for the garden....i love hogs.....we have lots here.
oh, and not forgetting i want my own horse.....dh is on board with this....car first, then horse!

I am not doing well - it seems everyone here is being so positive, i don't want to bring it down. I knew this would happen when DD went back to school.

Just a quickie.

I'll snuggle up in the 'not doing so well corner lem.

I haven't needed to get up again this morning as dd3 at her dads again. So I havent. I have to do some brownie paperwork later though.

First I will finish my book.

I only ever read crime/investigation type stuff. At the moment I'm reading a series of lisa gardner books.

for you Ed, I have to get up to take DD to school but returning to bed seems like a very good option. Bugger

Oh LEM we have all been there, and this thread is for us all to help each other. Sorry you're there too Ed.

I have had a crap few days but last night seemed to have a bit of a breakthrough. Had been feeling so overwhelmed - even though I'm reining back on my service user involvement work, still have the paperwork to go through to keep or throw out.

Nana I too am delighted to see you :)

Bed thread KLAXON alert.

I am about to get out of bed...wait for it...before noon....

ed
nana lovely to have you back x. V glad things are improving. Yes I have always enjoyed colouring, drawing, designing and have done a lot of colouring with my kids. But name is really in honour of me starting a weekly painting course last Sept and finding I have some talent :-)

Sorry if this is curt or texty -am on phone again, apol too not name checking everyone.

lem I am back in bed now. We all have ups and downs. Hope yr hanging in there

I had doc and counselling this morn and am done in. Doc good. Talked about anxiety stuff. She said fluox not usually prescribed for anxiety and dep, she would have put me on sth else. I think my original doc was a bit rubbish really. I had been seeing her for three months with stomach probs before presenting with depression. Not rocket science. Could switch but have tapering and restarting challenge. I have ds birthday in 4 weeks, dd first communion 4 weeks after that and she said likely to go down a bit first with change, so agreed would review in 3 weeks. Also suggested I take extra trazodone on ad hoc basis if v stressful thing anticipated.

Conselling v tough talking through time at secondary school cant believe how powerful it still is. Brain failing now, back later x

Oh Vicar - It is quite obvious that the newly acquired possession of these rats is doing you a power of good.......but I shudder at the thought of any kind of rat. Seems like they are very indulged rats, with all their paraphenalia and chicken, banana, strawberries, apple and grapes -do you serve these delicacies up with a crisp white wine to wash it down!!

Anyway it's good to see you are ok, back at work, and getting such pleasure from your "girls" - whatever it takes I guess.

Lem I don't think we've met, but I know what it's like to feel crap and see others sounding positive. It's not that we want them to feel crap too, it's just that it makes us feel worse by comparison if you see what I mean. That's how it struck me anyway on crap days. I even hated to see people laughing and chatting - I was so envious when I could barely get out of bed. Not saying those days will not be back for me but am enjoying the respite.

Sorry you're not doing so well Ed and I know you don't have any hang ups about staying in bed. On bad days I force myself out about 12.30 - 1.00 but only with the promise to myself that I can go back at 3 or 4 (under a nice cuddly blanket) so it's not in bed! My CPN was dead against this staying in bed, but she hadn't ever experienced severe depression, and so didn't know that at least staying under a duvet made the pain a bit more bearable.

Don't know if you are up yet Lem but "doing" the kitchen sounds like a big chore - could you do a bit of it and leave the rest. Don't know if you've heard of the "Do 1 thing a day" mantra and sometimes that's all we can manage.

SPC I know you have told me about your service user involvement work before (well I think you have) buy my memory is so crap these days that I don't know. Am going to pm you to ask again as I have been thinking that I would like to get involved in something useful to help others, so long as it was understood that I am likely to get bad days, so am not 100% reliable.

Think our post crossed CinQ and your warm welcome back. Glad to hear you have a talent in painting! I started a water colour course some years ago and was still at work full time - it was in the evening and I was just too tired. No talent though! I still love paints and have several boxes - I just love the colours and I do get them out sometimes and have a splash around with them!

Re your GP and fluoxetine. As far as I know this is an SSRI AD. My CPN told me recently that all GPs and psychiatrists have their "favourite" ADs which struck me as strange, given that what suits one person doesn't suit another. The brand name for fluoxetine is Prozac I think but I might be wrong. My GP told me she was a "sertraline girl" (!) that is another SSRI. I am on an old fasioned tryclic (imipramine) as it seems to suit me. I thought all ADs were meant to treat both depression and anxiety symptoms, but the conslt psych who was treating me when I was an inpatient 2 years ago, prescribed diazepam, which surprised me as I know that they can induce addiction. They are only 2mg and I rarely take them as they don't seem to make any difference.

I think it's very common for people to present to their GP with physical symptoms, when the symptons are those of a mental illness.

I have a grandson making his first communion in May - they are in Ireland which is of course a Catholic country (the republic I mean) I was brought up a Catholice and my parents stayed true all their lives but I al "lapsed".............so sorry that the demons from secondary school are still troubling you. It never ceases to amaze me how traumas from the past can affect us in the present.

I've had a random thought...and its about aibu...but I daren't post in that scary place so I will post here instead. lem got me thinking so might or might not help.

When you post on any other board on mn you are usually asking people to comment on objects, observations or actions. For example the latest school run dress. Some will be positive. Some will be negative. You'll take the balance on board and accept that people have different tastes. If people criticise they are not normally criticising you they are criticising the object of the post. The subject of the post.

When you post in aibu you often start with your opinion. You then fundamentally ask if others agree or disagree. Now my belief is that an opinion belongs to the person that owns it. An opinion can't be right or wrong. Its ok to have a different opinion to the person next to you. I believe that it is ok to discuss and debate an opinion. In fact healthy. But fundamentally it is wrong to tell someone that theif opinion is wrong. Different ok. But wrong is not possible because then it would have to be a fact or observation iyswim. Opinions are about feelings. Feelings are personal.

So the whole aibu board is fundamentally flawed.

Op: I have this opinion. Do you agree?
At least one other poster will say no you are wrong.
Op: but its my opinion. It belongs to me. It can't be wrong.
Other poster: well why did you ask for opinions if yours is right?
Round and round in circles....your opinion is wrong. Mine is right....

Does that make any sense???

End of philosophical thought for the day...back to rats, beds, cats, hamsters and other nice gluffy thoughts...

Thanks Nana I am a bit gutted that I don't seem to be on the right SSRI AD for my symptoms. Everything I've read about prozac/fluox says its good for depression (which it is, definately) but not usually prescribed for anxiety and can make it worse. I am wondering if its making mine worse. The GP I've been seeing for last two months (my actual one went on maternity leave fortunately) said she would have put me on something else. I am wondering whether, after my DD's first communion end of June to try switching, tho as she says, there's no guarantee that another will be better "complicated cooking" as she calls it (which I quite like!)

Nice to hear you enjoy the colours - I know exactly what you mean. It's a nice activity. Nice to hear about your grandson. I too was brought up catholic and am just about hanging in there, but DD is excited about making her first communion which is really nice. She will actually be wearing the dress that I wore!

Yes it is amazing isn't it that experiences from 25-30 years ago can still have a big effect. Mine come from being unfashionably dressed, shy and naive at a private girls secondary school (paid for by my grandparents). I still have vivid memories of being laughed at and really struggling to have any sort of decent friendship and it definately affects my confidence now particularly when socialising and even shopping for clothes! Trying to support my DD through tough times at her school brings it all back and makes it hard for me to help DD and leaves me feeling depressed/anxious as a result of all the feelings and memories that return, plus I feel like a rubbish mum for not helping my DD more (and dreading her saying, mummy can I tell you something...) Bleurh.

So wiped out now thought, think I will try and have a nap in a bit!

..........now begining to wonder if i am the only poster on this thread without a rat?? I do love rats - i used to have one that i kept in a mouses cage - she only went there to sleep, i used to open the cage in the morning and she had the run of the house - she was lovely, i remember her fondly. I have now two JRTs, not quite rats but similar. Can't be doing with hamsters though - sorry :)

I know exactly what you mean Ed about AIBU and it insterests me, i have often been tempted, although i have never done this - to post a post at one point in the day and then start the same thread say in the evenings. I really think it tends to matter what the first few replies are an that sets the scene for the rest of the post. I have seen this where the OP gets flammed at the start of a thread with lots of posters sheep agreeing how crap their opinion, and therefore they are. Then later on in the day, you get a few posters who venture in with a varying opinion and so the bunfight begins. I am sure i am guilty of being a sheep as well as bun thrower. My thread about my lardarse was probably a bit of masochism and a symptom rather than a cause of me having a bit of a wobble.

I have just sent an email volunteering for my local foodbank,i keep reading the foodbank thread twat that i am and sobbing, also can't help but think "there but for the grace of god" so I am hoping they get back to me. I would enjoy sorting out all the food etc and helping out.
So some positive for today - that and Mc D for dinner later

That leads me on to NanaNina no, i dont think we have met, hello :) I really do want to sort the kitchen - by this i mean wash up because we always have Mc Donalds on a tuesday as a treat for DD so that would mean no mountain of washing up staring at me in the morning. Always a bonus. I was prescribed diazepam when i first started this lot of citalopram because i reacted quite badly when i started (suicidal thoughts :( which i am still having on and off - been bad today, but im the other side of that now) and i do find they help, despite my doctor agreeing with me that they may as well be smarties at that dose! I found they help. I do think you are right about the ADs of choice. They all seem to want to prescribe one or other of the SSRIs, i think my doctor goes iwth citalopram first as they are one of the cheaper ones. Not that she would admit to that!

You are right about the positivity too - it can be difficult, but its good too, when i can peep over the precipice long enough i can see that I can move on - I am in awe of Vicarinatutu, she is my inspiration to go back to her job is amazing, i wish i had half her balls! I read her posts and think i could be ok! Everyone here inspires me - from the little things to returning to the police force.

at complicated cooking, colouring. at the comminion, im a lapsed catholic but woul have loved for my DD to take hers but she doesn't want to. I got alot out of going to church when I had PND but stopped going because the priest kept nagging me and DP about gettting married. Maybe next year.

...no rats here lem just a cat. Will have to try and work out how to post a pic. Liking the sound of your McD's tonight