Feeling really low

Hope you have a better day today - it’s a tough time mentally at the moment, I think everyone has days that they suffer. I heard someone on tv describe it as the Corona Coaster (roller coaster). Up some days down others.....it’s not unexpected. Try and do whatever you can that makes you feel good, meditate, garden, read a good book and be kind to yourself. In our age bracket it’s easy to fear for our children and their children but through history others have been the same (albeit with different issues) ?

Same here was reasonably fine until end of week seven (8 for us) now I have done most of the things round the house I wanted to do. Have started writing some family history but finding it hard to concentrate. I think I have overdone my physio exercises and am now in pain and not sure what it is. Like katyj I have a SIL and GS with type 1 diabetes, I can recognise anxiety when I see it! I think a day out in the sun is probably called for. Days just drift by.

Retirement is such a huge change without all the added extras we have at present, just try to think none of this normal.

As can be seen from the responses here you are by no means alone. One thing that I find helps is to ration the news. There's only so much they can say and just because they are broadcasting 24/7 doesn't mean that you have to. I am keeping up to date and then getting on with things. I have also enrolled on a short course online which I am finding interesting. Great to be absorbed in something.

Albertina Yes would I lie to you is another funny program.

Hi Lizbethann
I hope it helps that so many of us feel the same. The situation can be really frightening. I have spent a lot of time feeling exactly like you. The only advice I can give is try really hard to just look to the end of the day and not further into the future. Nobody yet knows how and when this will end - it could be long or short. We will gradually start going back into some kind of life and I believe we will have to take risks if we want to do that.
It’s better when the weather is nice eh? And today the sun is shining ?
Hang on in there. X
And if you could tell me what all the abbreviations are which I’ve never understood! E.g, DH etc
Thanks

Yes like you I have my secret thoughts of doom and gloom but the next day the sky is so blue the birds are singing their hearts out and the sun is warm on my face .My friend will never see this again she is buried tomorrow and how she would love to be here to relish such simple pleasures of our beautiful world.So Lisbeth you are not alone with these thoughts but accept that these days will happen then move on and look and find the treasures and beauty that will bring you joy .Keep Smiling

I thought the lockdown would just be like a normal day as due to walking problems not go far anyway but I long to go somewhere ,but find even a drive to get tablets i just want to get home . As I go towards front door feel like not want to go out (just in case ) germs about getting so worried about everything around knowing we got a long time and a long way to go . Glad I not keep a lot of booze here think I could turn to drink (joke ) at least for DH here . Keep smiling it can only get better .

Liz46 that is a good idea. I was watching In for a Penny with Stephen Mulhern and at times it's so funny that I just roar with laughter. A daily dose of laughter.

Yes, I have also feeling a bit blue the last few days. We are nearly in June and I haven’t seen my son, his partner and 4-year old granddaughter since early March. I haven’t seen my daughter since 1st March. My other son is at home with me and OH. He had been living in Paris last year but everything hit the fan so he came home to regroup. Just as things were looking up and he was planning to move to London, lockdown happened. I zoom my granddaughter a couple of times a week and read her stories. We also zoom celebrated her birthday and mine. This Friday two of my children celebrate their birthday (no, they are not twins) so we will be zooming that.

But none of this is the same as meeting in person. The two with the shared birthday live in London. We live 60 miles away, which is too far to drive up and go for a socially distanced walk.

Even if the government hadn’t got it wrong during the first couple of weeks of this pandemic, I don’t think it would have made much difference in the grand scheme of things. I watch other countries who are now coming out of lockdown and just hoping.

So, I am feeling low at the moment. I usually do a multitude of interesting things, outside of my house. Some will still be there, some won’t.

Really sorry you are struggling like this Lizbethann55. I had a bad week last week. Due to health condition I haven’t been out the door since mid March and just wanted things to be ‘back to normal’. Impossible I know! This is now normal....
I do feel better a bit better this week and trying to accept that it is what it is.

Hissy fit, nor fir!

I noticed that last week was the limit for many people and they had begun to be depressed and were inclined to scapegoat and quarrell. Techiness became rife. A friend of 40 years' standing manufactured an excuse to row and cast us off. (Asked for our house in Devon and, when we said a yes only conditional on travel and second homes being permissable, had a hissy fir and withdrew contact.)

If anything this week is worse, not made better by the amazing weather which puts a spotlight on the very real social, personal, emotional, economic and political deprivations we are all suffering.

I think people are being driven beyond endurance. But things will get better. Life has its ups and downs.

Here in France we've just had the first week of déconfinement
but quite honestly it has'nt changed much at all for me.
The shops are open , nobody is in them shopping though , some schools are open but the workforce is not fully back and the roads are busier but not normal.
Yes its lovely to leave the house without the dreaded 'papier
but 'normal activity ' is still not possible. Maybe when the bars and cafés are open it will feel better , I hope so because I'm still having 'wobbly days' feel tearfull and still don't get close to my DGC .

We are all at the moment going up and down on a rollercoaster.Its natural don't be to hard on yourself

I felt the same this morning and couldn't stop crying. Nothing in particular started me off, just a blanket of gloom all over me got to a pitch where the tears came.

I went onto the BBC films section on my tablet and found a film called Bringing up Baby with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. It actually made me laugh out loud.

Comedy is my definite solution to it all. It won't solve the problem but it lifts my spirits enormously.

Would I lie to you is another bit of comedy medicine that helps me.

I feel the same too. I am working from home but I am getting so depressed about sitting in front of my computer every day and wondering what on earth to do with myself. Listening to you, I couldn't help wondering if you really want to retire. Perhaps stepping down to part time work might help you with this transition. It is so hard, at the moment, to separate how you will feel in the real world and how much this isolation is impacting your true wishes.

I feel low at the moment. I'm on my own, haven't seen my daughter or granddaughters only video call. Just been told we are back to work full time, instead of shorter hours which has pushed anxiety up. It's like ploughing through mud at the moment.
But on the positive side I started renovating the garden, I'm able to finish my degree with no distraction and I'm going to buy a sewing machine and take up sewing.
There's very little advice I can give except grab the positives there staring you in the face.
Even some of these youngsters who are whinging haven't got a clue what's round the corner, and lots of healthy ones haven't made it.
Everyone is facing a tough time and just got to make the best of it. Take care.

When we retire it takes time to adjust. At the moment your getting a temporary retirement with lock down.
So this gives you time to decide what to do when you do retire.
I have things that I do socially and my times at home for doing (apart from housework ironing laundry etc.) reading,
Listening to music and watching tv or pottering in the garden.
My dh is waiting to see a consultant he needs a new knee, appointment was changed from March to July so we shall see
What happens. He has taken to singing more and he hasn’t a
great voice so I am putting up with it and the radio is on so it drowns it out a bit ? don’t go down the road for depression make the most of your time.

Not everything has an underlying physical cause, *Alexa although it may.
I know exactly where you are coming from Lizbethann.
Retirement (or impending retirement) should be up on that list of factors which can indue stress and depression along with bereavement, moving house, divorce, etc and now lockdown and the ramifications of Covid 19.
Combine any two or more and your tears are easy to understand.
The things we are being deprived of under lockdown are among those which make retirement the joy it can be, good health permitting. The freedom to pursue your own interests or hobbies, to go to the pub or eat out, to travel (remember that?) to play an active part in your grandchildren’s lives if you want and to be yourself.
I wonder if anybody on GN can say, hand on heart, that they have not felt like crying and crying?
This too will pass

I feel the same.
I’m very tearful too. A friend (just 50) died last week. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and gone in less than 6 weeks. I’m up one minute, down the next.
I try to see all the positives. House, garden, fantastic weather, all my family safe & well. Yesterday I drove for the first time in 8 weeks. Car needed a service. It was a surreal experience and having yearned to get out I couldn't wait to get home where I feel safe & secure. Animal instincts will out. Having adhered to all the rules & requirements almost to the letter,I am beyond angry with some local parents, who should know better, allowing their children to mix since day 1 and indeed, blatantly socialising themselves. (Degrees in medicine, veterinary, law etc. apparently make them ‘special’ & immune from the Law & don’t = common sense)
Lizbeth I think most of us feel as you. Knowing that life will never return to normal as we know it but a new normal, is daunting. I like many others am alone. Be thankful you have company, even if you have to share him with Marx ?. This too will pass...

If you are feeling really low your first action should be to look to your physical health.

Are you dehydrated?

Need to sleep?

Eating decent food with minerals and vitamins in it?

Recovering from a viral infection?

Some days I feel just the same. It’s like I’m getting out of bed and just passing time waiting to go back to bed that night. Luckily these days don’t happen too often. Much better now as things relax a little and it’s possible to meet up with one other person in the park.

I felt just the same yesterday- hoping for a better day today.

Lizbethan You aren’t alone with theses feelings of futility, I had a very bad day yesterday. I just woke up with this black cloud of doom hanging over me, I just couldn’t shake it off, I was tearful all day ,nothing would shake me out of it ,
It,s the feeling of another day of the same old same old , life passing by , not being able to see my family and Grandchildren ,how much longer will this awful pandemic continue to rob us of our normal life as we knew it , I am frightened to go out other than our daily walk ,
But today is another day , I am lucky I am not ilI have a nice garden to sit in with DH. So really I should be thankful. It’s just that some days it’s all overwhelming.
I hope you have a better day today Lizbethann ?

We have all experienced wobbles, feeling hopeless, it's nothing to be ashamed of, Lizbethann55.
Your will find many on here, who feel the same. Please don't think I'm unsympathetic, there are times in the past, where I have been in a very dark place and needed help.

However, it's how we deal with the current situation that is important.
Do we wallow or do we decide what we can do to make life more tolerable at the moment.

I read all the positives in your post:
A DH who cares about you.
Nice home
A job
You see your grandchildren a few times a week.
Reasonable health or you would be shielding.
You can get out for a walk.
Retirement to look forward to, if you decide to embrace it and enjoy the benefits it brings.
Things will get better for you, just hang on in there.

For those of us, who are shielding, won't get out in the foreseeable future, have had medical treatment postponed, in poor health and unable to enjoy the freedom retirement brings, can't see our grandchildren and have to rely on others for food deliveries, life is not so rosy.
However, I have learned to look for the positives, albeit the small ones, otherwise I would become severely depressed.
I am still alive that's what's important!

Why don't you read the Black Dog Thread on here, you will find lots of support.
I hope things get better for you.