Fighting a Losing Battle

One of the main problems with depression is that it never really goes away. No matter what the experts say, no matter how much CBT training or counselling you have, it is always there, somewhere in the background!

I refuse to take medication for it, probably not the best idea I've ever had but I just think it's un-natural to pump our bodies full of medication all the time. I also swear that the medication changes people, they become very detached from the world and un-naturally dosile.

Over the years I have tried many different methods for managing depression and none of them have really worked but I do now have a sort of system that seems to work quite well.

It is quite simply a weekly routine. Everyday we have at least one thing to go to or do. Like today, Tuesday, we go to one toddler group in the morning that starts at 10am, so I have to get up, get dressed and get out of the house. Now to anyone that has never suffered with depression this wouldn't seem like a big deal, but to someone that does suffer sometimes just managing to get out of bed in the morning is a massive achivement! 

Then this afternoon we have another group to go to. It helps to split the day up so you know that you don't have a whole day at home with two little ones that will inevitably get bored and start playing up. It helps me to know we have stuff to do and places to go, it helps to put me in the right frame of mind for the day.

So on days like today, when I feel tired, achey and just general rough it helps me to drag my behind out of bed and forces me to get on with it even though all I want to do is curl up in a ball in my bed and never get out again. 

What about you then, do you have a coping mechanism? Or are you one of the lucky ones that has never suffered with it? 

Too much choice

Yesterday the other half and I were taliking about today's society and the world we live in today and how it all seems to be going so wrong.
Life these days seems to be all about what you can get and how much of it. "Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today." - Mark Twain
People seem to do anything to get to where they want to be, regardless of who they crush along the way.
I feel that we live in a 'You can have it all and why shouldn't you society'.

Photo by Colin Grey

I have decided that it's because we all have to many options these days.
We can choice to live where we were born or we can choice to live abroad.
We can choice to work for a living or get benefits.
We can choice to have children or to have a career.
We can choice to go to university or go straight into work.
We can be hetrosexual, homosexual, bisexual, monosexual, asexual, pansexual, polysexual, pomosexual and transexual. (Yes these are all real I haven't made them up.)
We can choice from the vast list of careers available today.
Before you were either a nurse, a doctor, a dentist, a nanny, a cook or a cleaner. These days there are job titles such as a computer hardware engineer, database administrator, environmental scientist, recreational therapist and urban planner.
There are now so many options for children to take at school it's mind boggling. When I was at school it was just your basic subjects, English, Maths, Science, Language, History & Geography etc. Nowadays the students can do subjects such as Chinese, Systems and Control Technology, Engineering & Manufacturing, Human Physiology and Health, Applied Business and Archaeology.
Now I'm not being spiteful because we didn't get these kind of options when I was at school but I'm yet to meet a 15 year old that knows what they want to do for the rest of their life, (my Dad still doesn't know and he's in his 50's). So surley giving them all these options is just going to confuse them even more. What's wrong with learning the basics and going on from there?

Photo by alamosbasement

We can choice what kind of mother we want to be... the pefectionist mother, the networking mother, the working mother, the stay at home mother, the mothers instinct mother, the by the book mother, the scatter brain mother, the me first mother or the complete mother.
We can choice our parenting style, authorative parenting, indulgent parenting, neglectful parenting, authoritarian parenting, child lead parenting and alternative parenting.
We can choice to be a vegetarian, a fruitatarian, meatatarian or a vegan.
We can choice to be a Christian, a Buddist, a Hindu, a Jew, a Pagan or a Jedi.
We can chose our personal image.. vintage, classic, grundge, rock, preppy, sporty, sophisticated, nautical, boho and futuristic.

I think these days we can spend so much time worrying about which choices to take in our life that life itself is actually passing us by.
I'm not saying that any of the choices I've listed above are right or wrong, I'm just saying that there's a hell of a lot of them.

In a world where women can be men, men can be woman, children can be in charge and technology rules the world no wonder we are all confused!

Photo by planetobserver