Mental Health

[Guest]

@Stan do you live alone?

[Stan]

5 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@Stan do you live alone?

Nah with parents. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Stan said:

Nah with parents. 

That's even worse 

[Stan]

1 minute ago, Gunnersauraus said:

That's even worse 

Sometimes  

[Guest]

Just now, Stan said:

Sometimes  

Just stay strong do the things you advised me to do

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

Just stay strong do the things you advised me to do

I shall.

That's my other issue - great at giving advice out but not so great at taking it myself  

[CaaC (John)+]

 

 

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On 04/04/2020 at 17:32, Stan said:

Really finding it hard not seeing the missus either. Used to be every weekend without fail. We still video call but it's obviously nowhere near the same. 

You have to hang in there buddy, I am lucky as when I married I had finished my 5/6 months of tours of duties and only had maybe 3/4 weeks away from the wife while on exercise with the army, as they say, 'Absence makes the heart go stronger' when all this is over with you can sit back with your wife and family and maybe your own kiddies and reflect on the year 2020, life can be a bastard but be strong, I have been kicked in the teeth many a time over the years but I am still here at 70 years old.  

[Stan]

39 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

You have to hang in there buddy, I am lucky as when I married I had finished my 5/6 months of tours of duties and only had maybe 3/4 weeks away from the wife while on exercise with the army, as they say, 'Absence makes the heart go stronger' when all this is over with you can sit back with your wife and family and maybe your own kiddies and reflect on the year 2020, life can be a bastard but be strong, I have been kicked in the teeth many a time over the years but I am still here at 70 years old.  

Thanks.

I think we know we'll get through it but the regularity of seeing each other and now suddenly being chucked in to a situation where you can't is the difficult part. And perhaps also the apprehension of not knowing what kind of measures will be put on to us next Tuesday, or before - further restrictions or not.

[carefreeluke]

I've been a bit up and down with the mental health side of things during quarantine but doing better than I thought I would.

One of the best bits of advice I've heard relatively recently is that, if you're in a difficult situation about worries and anxiety, ask yourself what you'd do if you weren't worried or anxious? Then whatever that is, go do it anyway. This is particularly true for myself where I'm very guilty of stopping things and isolating myself from the rest of the world when I'm in a bad place mentally. I'll have plans or things to do but I'll either not do them or do them at a much slower pace and let the worries dominate proceedings. 

The Anxiety Podcast is also something I've been listening to over the last 6 months and it's very useful for those interested. It's a podcast that can be found through the usual avenues.

[Pyfish+]

On 04/04/2020 at 17:32, Stan said:

Not gonna lie finding it a tad difficult, especially adjusting to constantly being at home. Found myself becoming really irritable and losing patience very quickly. Mainly to do with work and constantly being at home whereas I was used to 60-70% of my working week being out on site/my patch/visiting tenants or dropping in to the office.

I know I'll get over it but it's trying to tear myself away from the desk as we're still busy, but need to learn to take more breaks before I drive myself crazy.

Really finding it hard not seeing the missus either. Used to be every weekend without fail. We still video call but it's obviously nowhere near the same. Just hoping an extended lockdown period, if any after the 14th (I think it's expected, sadly ), is not too long. I don't want to put her or her family at risk though so it's a case of short term pain, long term gain. Very hard though  

That's proper shit mate especially after recently getting engaged. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that! Hang in there.

9 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

I've been a bit up and down with the mental health side of things during quarantine but doing better than I thought I would.

One of the best bits of advice I've heard relatively recently is that, if you're in a difficult situation about worries and anxiety, ask yourself what you'd do if you weren't worried or anxious? Then whatever that is, go do it anyway. This is particularly true for myself where I'm very guilty of stopping things and isolating myself from the rest of the world when I'm in a bad place mentally. I'll have plans or things to do but I'll either not do them or do them at a much slower pace and let the worries dominate proceedings. 

The Anxiety Podcast is also something I've been listening to over the last 6 months and it's very useful for those interested. It's a podcast that can be found through the usual avenues.

That's good advice. I've not given that podcast a try yet but I will do over the next few days as my anxiety has been quite bad of late and like Stan and others have said, this lockdown is making me a lot more irritable and work seems ten times as stressful. Starting to separate work from home life now a little bit more though and my desk I use for work was my desk I use for online and gaming but I'm starting to mix up where I work day to day.

[RandoEFC+]

I'm lucky to live with three other lads my age and we have a small garden so we have a bit of banter throughout the day and play some keepy uppies in the garden every few days.

I'm still finding it difficult though. Over the last two weeks I've had some purpose attempting to set work for kids from home. It's Easter holidays now and I'm facing two weeks of pretty much just staying at home doing nothing. Two of my house mates still go to work each day and I've told them how lucky they are.

I'm quite good at understanding my feelings so I never really worry about my mental health as such, but I do feel down about the fact I haven't seen my family for 3 weeks, my friends and colleagues for 2 weeks as well as the majority of kids I teach. I certainly didn't expect to be missing my classes this much after two weeks. The loss of purpose and routine is what I hate the most. I just have this feeling of being demotivated and sullen.

The biggest thing is not knowing how long this continues. It seems like it will be months, though I am slightly optimistic the Isle of Man's situation is more manageable. With a population of 85,000 if we can quash the virus reasonably well we can probably operate again while keeping the borders closed, at least I hope.

Just trying to take it day by day at the moment though. At least on Easter Monday I'm meant to be going into work to supervise the kids of key workers and one of my best mates from work is my 'partner' that day so it'll be nice to catch up a bit.

I feel more for those living on their own. Make sure you guys make the most of video chats and try to avoid thinking too much about it being a matter of weeks and months to come.

[carefreeluke]

29 minutes ago, Pyfish said:

That's proper shit mate especially after recently getting engaged. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that! Hang in there.

That's good advice. I've not given that podcast a try yet but I will do over the next few days as my anxiety has been quite bad of late and like Stan and others have said, this lockdown is making me a lot more irritable and work seems ten times as stressful. Starting to separate work from home life now a little bit more though and my desk I use for work was my desk I use for online and gaming but I'm starting to mix up where I work day to day.

Yeah, the podcast is good mate, in fact, it's where I got that bit of advice from.

A link for those interested, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-anxiety-podcast/id1031117023

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

The loss of purpose and routine is what I hate the most. I just have this feeling of being demotivated and sullen.

The purpose part doesn't bother me as much but I'm undoubtedly better with a routine mate as well. My mental health is generally always better when I'm working. I'm also a teacher and I had the thought today or yesterday about the possibility of teaching in-person again (i.e. going back to normal) and it really excited me. Over the last 3 years, I have had about a month off in summer from teaching and generally speaking, my mental health is a lot worse in that period. I still can have bad moments when I'm in the normal routine but my thoughts and worries definitely escalate intensively during that period of about a month where on paper it should be the opposite. It's something I need to work on.

I've been trying to look at this period as an opportunity, work on a few hobbies and do a few things that I don't normally have enough time for. I've still been working from home, sending students work, preparing exams and marking but next week is a week off, even though I'll still be marking etc. 

[RandoEFC+]

@carefreeluke quote function isn't working for some reason. I get the same especially during the six-week summer. I hate doing nothing with my days, it makes me feel pointless and weirdly fatigued. Christmas is okay because it's busy and friends are back home visiting and stuff. Easter I usually get away or something. The summer though, even if I go away for a week of it, go to the gym, walk there and back every day, play a bit of football in the garden, people say "make the most of your time" but as a single bloke in your mid-20s without kids or anything there's only so many ways to occupy that massive length of time (especially living on an island like this). I don't know if I'd call it something to work on though, I just try and tell myself that one day I'll hopefully have a family and every day will be busy, so I should enjoy the rest and the peace and quiet while I still can, but I can never fully embrace the feeling of going to bed at night knowing that I don't "need" to worry about anything for tomorrow or have any plans.

What I'm trying to say is that I think it's pretty normal for anyone to feel that way when you have a 4-6 week period off work where you can literally not even think about it. Teaching is one of few jobs where you get that as part of your calendar every year, but I imagine most people would find it similar if they had the same amount of time off without it being specifically booked out for a three-week trip to Australia or some other purpose.

[Smiley Culture]

This second week of staying home hasn’t been too bad actually. I had a feeling that it could have been, with the novelty of being at home and working from home wearing off. I’m still working, so I have a purpose throughout the day and a need to maintain a routine of sorts. If I didn’t have work, I think I’d possibly be in a different mindset. 

[carefreeluke]

May as well use this topic to spread some positivity, links, ideas and things like that during this time. Would be nice to get others doing it.

I saw this randomly scrolling on Facebook earlier, (it's translated from Italian by Facebook, so ignore the English). It highlights the importance of keeping going, no matter your present situation.

Grandma once gave me a tip:

During difficult times, you move forward in small steps.
Do what you have to do, but little by bit.
Don't think about the future, not even what might happen tomorrow. Wash the dishes.
Take off the dust.
Write a letter.
Make some soup.
Do you see?
You are moving forward step by step.
Take a step and stop.
Get some rest.
Compliment yourself.
Take another step.
Then another one.
You won't notice, but your steps will grow bigger and bigger.
And time will come when you can think about the future without crying.

[nudge+]

Exercise. Nothing clears the head like a good workout. 

[Stan]

34 minutes ago, nudge said:

Exercise. Nothing clears the head like a good workout. 

Just went for my daily walk. Absolutely beautiful out there. Good to do it after I've finished work as I feel like I've actually separated myself form work/home life balance as opposed just moving to a different room. 

[nudge+]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

Just went for my daily walk. Absolutely beautiful out there. Good to do it after I've finished work as I feel like I've actually separated myself form work/home life balance as opposed just moving to a different room. 

Looks lovely.

Yeah, fresh air and a bit of exercise (even simple walking) really does wonders. 

[Danny]

So a week ago we went to see my granddad in hospital as per the hospital's instructions, got there and was told we shouldn't have come and they made a mistake. We also had to self-isolate for 7 days as we'd been stood waiting outside the coronavirus ward and our chances of contracting it had gone up.

Today is the 7th day and thank fuck for that because that walk through the park for an hour does wonders for your mental state...anyone notice how when they go out for a walk with someone currently you just end up bitching and moaning about everything? Proper relaxing stuff haha 

[CaaC (John)+]

6 minutes ago, Stan said:

Just went for my daily walk. Absolutely beautiful out there. Good to do it after I've finished work as I feel like I've actually separated myself form work/home life balance as opposed just moving to a different room. 

That looks beautiful, there is nothing like a good walk with lovely surroundings,  we have a place up here called Corstorphine Woods just outside of Edinburgh, we have been there a few times over the years and the walk is superb, pity we did not live closer there now because that's where I would be with the wife.

 

[Danny]

A couple pictures, first my local park that due it's ability to hold 2 cricket pitches and about 6-8 football pitches means that it's heaven for social distancing

 

And this is just a tree nearby that has bloomed and looks pretty nice

[Mpache]

shit, I’m feeling depressed again.

I think the problem this time is just not being able to do anything. I stay home a lot usually anyways but I had more of power to be able to move around on my own as of this year and this pandemic isn’t letting me nor anyone. So I can be put on that boat now.

Also the same issues with friends and instability. Sigh.

[Guest]

That's a shame @Inti Brian do you have anyone who you are in regular contact with? Are you living alone?

[Mpache]

Just now, Gunnersauraus said:

That's a shame @Inti Brian do you have anyone who you are in regular contact with? Are you living alone?

My parents, brother and my dog.

I try to refrain from telling others my problems because I just find that makes things worse. I've learnt the hard way.

[Guest]

So you live with your parents do you mean?

Aren't they supportive of your mental health issues @Inti Brian