Anxiety & SAD

Could you try to write a poem or a story? If you keep a pen and a notebook handy you could think out the rhymes or think out a story. a happy story, and as you concentrate on that and musing how the story develops you will be busy and the time will pass. Eventually you may well feel tired, so you can simply put pen and paper to one side, turn off the light, or leave it on it you prefer, close your eyes and imagine how the happy story will continue and muse over it and then you may find that you feel awake and refreshed and it is morning as, thinking how the happy story develops, you relax and drift off to sleep.

You could think of a story for yourself, or if you like, here is one to start you off.

Have you ever visited an arboretum?

Like a zoo - a zoological garden - has animals, an arboretum has trees, specimens of trees of various types. An arboretum can be both a place to go to be amongst the trees yet it can also be a scientific reference collection, so that if say, someone were wanting to plant a forest, he or she can go and see what the trees will look like when full grown.

A famous arboretum is Westonbirt Arboretum, managed bu The Forestry Commission. Westonbirt was originally a private estate and many trees were planted starting well over a century ago.

[[https://www.forestryengland.uk/westonbirt-the-national-arboretum Click here for the Westonbirt Arboretum] website]

Your poem, or your story, could be of a lady who has a dream of starting a forest. Just imagine how she had been given a Premium Bond by her grandmother as a first birthday present - just in case it might win.

Now, many, many years later it has won her a million pounds. So now she can buy some land and choose some trees and pay a landscape gardener to plant the trees for her. Yet which types of trees, she will go to the arboretum and wander and look and consider.

So, there is the start of a story ...

Oops!

[[https://www.forestryengland.uk/westonbirt-the-national-arboretum Click here for the Westonbirt Arboretum] website]]

Double oops!

Click here for the Westonbirt Arboretum website

Hello Candy6. Having watched my DH suffer from anxiety I can honestly say that counselling was the thing that helped him most. If you've not already sought this I would really recommend you talking to your GP about this. DH resisted seeking help and after he'd got help his only regret was not doing so sooner.

I don't like the dark winter nights either. I'm a do-er and an outdoors girl so being stuck in gets me down. I make sure I do get out and about as much as possible on brigher days. I walk my dog and go to green places and the beach. At night I keep busy with projects like knitting, sewing, planning the garden for next spring and baking. I also make the house really cosy with fairy lights, blankets, candles, warming food, hot chocolate and bubble baths.

You are definitely not the only one to dread the clocks going back. I hope this year it's easier for you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I always used to like writing stories as a child, so I could definitely try this. Thanks again x

I enjoy the dark evenings. I light the fire, get out the books and knitting, have a look at what films I might watch - and snuggle up under a blanket with the dog and/or cat.

I often go out for a walk around the fields, too. It's so nice, in the peace and quiet, seeing all the stars and the moon. I just don't understand why some people think there's danger with darkness - when it's simply not true.

Have you thought of one of those lamps that provide ‘sunlight’ for you. I understand they are really efficient and beneficial.

If thinking of buying a lamp do contact the S.AD.Association who will advise

My friend has just had her book published. She started writing it when recovering from an op.Its a simple story based on her childhood, not my cup of tea at all but she has managed to get it published. She started by jotting down ideas and writing a bit of a chapter every day.

You must live in the countryside if you walk around fields and enjoy the peace and quiet Hetty, but dark streets and unlit places might not seem so appealing if you live in an urban area.