Morbid Thoughts

Whitewave, that's brilliant positive thinking by your mum! Way to go! - as they say.

Loopy - perhaps it IS SAD although twilight is not a good time for me whatever the season. Glad to hear your light bulb helped, though.

Charleygirl - I don't think it can be the prescription drugs as I have always been the same but perhaps they are making it worse at the moment.

Anyway, I'm glad it's not just me - thanks, all..

I am sure that it is perfectly normal that as we age our thoughts turn to our demise. But sometimes it is all relative.

Mum at 97 is wondering whether to have her eyes sorted out and has decided the answer is yes as she may well go blind in 10 years!

Definitely not ridiculous NotTooOld, sounds like an element of SAD. I bought a so-called daylight standard lamp for knitting etc and to my surprise (triggered by this thread, thank you!), I realise this is the first winter for years where I haven't actually wished I could hibernate. We bought this house 19 years ago, after viewing many, purely because of the amount of light.
I almost see the autumn as going downhill, dragging slowly through winter then my mood rising up again in spring.
'Sundowners' sound like an excellent therapy to me!

Thanks for all your replies. I don't think I'm clinically depressed, I think I'm very susceptible to light, so that once the evening begins to draw in, I think the morbid thoughts. If I turn on the lights and the TV the bad thoughts go away immediately. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? We've moved house a lot and one of my criteria has always been that there must be lots of light. DH used to think I was mad but he's accepted it now. My father was the same about light but when I asked my daughter recently if the twilight affected her she said no, which is good. Perhaps I should cheer myself up by pouring a glass of wine when the sun is going down - come to think of it, perhaps that's why people used to have 'sun-downers' and say 'open the bottle, the sun has gone over the yard arm'!

NotTooOld......been there, got the T shirt....seeing the councillor.

I'd recommend a book that introduces the sort of therapy I'm having.

Its called The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris. Its a silly title but once you start reading it, all that worrying business about negative thoughts become much clearer.

Basically thoughts are just that....thoughts caused by our busy modern brains that are still set on survival instinct mode. We are always searching for danger and problems and when there is nothing actually there we fill in the gaps.

One of the first things I've been taught....and its like keep fit - you have to keep exercising the tactic to build up the skill.....is to recognise the thought and give it a label...Oh that's one of my morbid/dying/disaster thoughts. Then you can say to yourself...'I'm having a thought - is it actually helpful at this moment? (Usually the answer is a big fat NO). Then you just sort of recognise the thought for what it is and move on to something more helpful. If I cant sleep I just go through the alphabet thinking up 5 girls and boys names....I rarely get past F.

Any way will stop rambling...just to say, Yes get those thoughts and you are not alone.

No, life's too short.

I never used to think about death or illness in my early 60s and now in my late 60s they pop up daily. I try very hard to push them away and get on with things.

I am a very positive person, heaven help anyone who is of a negative disposition.

I do too but put it down to so much depressing news around, rather than the return of depression, hopefully lighter evenings and more will help?

Some everyday drugs, prescription only, are known to cause morbid thoughts so it may not be you- you may be getting some unwanted "assistance".

Darn it; long post from me just disappeared into cyberspace so I'll just say 'yes' it does happen to me these days late at night.

I think many people do this more as they get older; but it can also be a symptom of an underlying depression, so if those thoughts become too obtrusive it might be worth seeking some advice about it.