Feeling down, not depressed, just empty.

[anonymous-user]

King Herald said:

garyhun said:

Too far for a quick pint then

Keep posting and let us know how you get on - if just to keep me out of trouble moving forwards

Unfortunately I gave up drinking about three months ago, which might be part of the reason for the misery....

I shall endeavor to update this thread, assuming all goes well.

That's why I had the smiley after the pint comment

[King Herald]

garyhun said:

That's why I had the smiley after the pint comment

But the idea of a pint or two actually sounds sooooooo good right now.....

[anonymous-user]

King Herald said:

garyhun said:

That's why I had the smiley after the pint comment

But the idea of a pint or two actually sounds sooooooo good right now.....

I'm convinced that the worlds wrongs can be righted with a few pints or a good bottle of wine

[Wacky Racer]

With your engineering background, how about offering your services to The Churnet Valley steam railway, not a million miles from you. Just a thought.

https://www.churnet-valley-railway.co.uk/line-guid...

[greygoose]

Winter is a depressing time for most people, get a sunlamp and start looking for a hobby to fill your time, not easy when it is cold outside.

[King Herald]

Wacky Racer said:

With your engineering background, how about offering your services to The Churnet Valley steam railway, not a million miles from you. Just a thought.

https://www.churnet-valley-railway.co.uk/line-guid...

I've been trying to find a project to get into, and something like steam engines actually appeals more than the same old hot old stuff I've been doing for 20 years..

[Big_Dog]

Don't think anyones mentioned it yet. Have you had your testosterone levels checked. There are a few obvious symptoms but your anhedonia is one of them.

[Andy_stook_2k]

I'm in the midlands, north of Wolvo too, it can be a bit depressing
Get a mountain bike and go over Cannock Chase, that will blow a few cobwebs away.
Hope you get back on track soon, always enjoy your posts.

[King Herald]

I've heard about the testosterone too, might see about checking it out.

I bought a used mountain bike many years ago, rode it home, and that was where it stayed. I never did get round to riding it anywhere.

[King Herald]

Yes, container will arrive and things will start to happen, the workshop will get sorted out and the juices will flow.

Went to the docs today about the three week old man flu, got some penicillin. I seem to have a clogged lung.

Leaflet in the waiting room tells me to visit to doc if I have a cough for 3 weeks or longer...could be cancer.

[knitware]

Hi, sorry to hear that you are feeling a little deflated, Jnauary is a long crappy month but spring is on the horizon, anyway I have a suggestion.

Have you thought about buying a motorbike? It doesn't matter what type but riding is one of the few things that makes me feel great, football is ok but I'm crap, golf frustrates and time with the children is offset by my wife constantly shouting.

A pootle around the countryside is exhilaration and beautiful, it also clears the mind. Along with the ride another aspect is that it also could give a new focus to your life which involves just you. I think we can consider others too much and need to take care of ourselves a little more, become a little more selfish.

Just a thought.

[motco]

King Herald said:

Yes, container will arrive and things will start to happen, the workshop will get sorted out and the juices will flow.

Went to the docs today about the three week old man flu, got some penicillin. I seem to have a clogged lung.

Leaflet in the waiting room tells me to visit to doc if I have a cough for 3 weeks or longer...could be cancer.

That's what I call a Job's Comforter!

[RDMcG]

Personal experience is that boredom is a killer and hobbies are not an adequate substitute. Having a range of friends is good but drinking too much and meeting mates to reminisce and talk about the good times is a ticket to doddery old codger world.
For me personally I have to be doing somerhing new.

I still have hobbies and travel lots. Sti do lots of car stuff and write now and then for a couple of car mags. Still go to tracks. Still collect wine.

It' was not enough.

When I retired from full time at 60 I did five years of global consulting in the tech space which was good but at the end I was overweight with rising blood pressure.

I then went into a major fitness push. Two hours a day at the gym. Proper eating. A trainer. That was good and meant I was back to getting up 6am. I got involved with a small company on the board. Today on the boards of two smaller public companies in the high tech space and am on the advisory board of a third software firm in Silicon Valley. Last night I was on conference calls till 10pm.

I never understood the idea that you would as your last living observation think that you wished you had worked less. I love the involvement and being active in creating change. The boredom has gone away. Now my leisure time has become valuable because there is less of it. I need some adrenalin and could not care less about the good old days. I am well aware that at some stage I will decline physically and move from driving sports cars to some blobmobile or God forbid a self driving plug in toaster with wheels or get cancer or dementia. If so it has been a good ride and tomorrow is more exciting than yesterday. Does not matter what you want to do but find something that demands your time. Don't watch tv or spend all day on the web unless it's work related. Look after your health.
Like many people I slacked off over Christmas and now have a major gym push which is harder as you get older. Stuff hurts. My knees are sore. But by a month I will be back where I need to be.

[Patch1875]

Big_Dog said:

Don't think anyones mentioned it yet. Have you had your testosterone levels checked. There are a few obvious symptoms but your anhedonia is one of them.

I've got an appointment to get my blood taken to check this, A lot of the symptoms tie up to my ongoing issues.

Fatigue
Muscle and joint pain
Low sex drive
Low mood and feeling flat

It's like I've aged 20 years.

[Cerbhd]

I'll be honest with you OP, you've done an awful lot in the last few months with the move, retiring and giving up the booze.
I've read this post and your other contributions of the other forum and I really don't think you have gotten over giving up drinking.
It is a massive commitment (which I haven't done) and you shouldn't underestimate its effect on you.
I mothballed my company last year due to stress and have been renovating a house to keep me sane as I'm only 45, when I run out of things to do I have the same feelings that you have.
People think retirement will be great but I've discovered it is not for everyone.
Try and keep positive and I really hope you feel better soon, hopefully it is a time thing
All the best
Jon

[King Herald]

NeMiSiS said:

I took my truck to the garage as I was told by a qualified mech that I had spun a big end shell, it was knocking its head off.....turned out to be a faulty injector.

Cancer my ar5e, you have a chest infection and I'm not surprised coming to this climate from what you have been used too.

Tell me you are not walking around in a flowery vest, shorts and flip- flops.

If you are then no wonder that used car salesman had you off, he must have thought it was his birthday.

Chin up.

No, no cancer, just seems to be a little 'job security' advertising in the waiting room.

I left there with some penicillin and talk of a clogged up lung, and I must admit I feel a lot chirpier tonight after just two doses. And a flu shot. Never had one before, nurse recommended it though, and she is better trained than me.

I am actually wearing shorts, but with long socks, t shirt, sweater and a wooly hat.....in the house. Heating is on 22c.

RDMcG said:

......I never understood the idea that you would as your last living observation think that you wished you had worked less. I love the involvement and being active in creating change. The boredom has gone away. Now my leisure time has become valuable because there is less of it. I need some adrenalin and could not care less about the good old days. I am well aware that at some stage I will decline physically and move from driving sports cars to some blobmobile or God forbid a self driving plug in toaster with wheels or get cancer or dementia. If so it has been a good ride and tomorrow is more exciting than yesterday. Does not matter what you want to do but find something that demands your time. Don't watch tv or spend all day on the web unless it's work related. Look after your health.
Like many people I slacked off over Christmas and now have a major gym push which is harder as you get older. Stuff hurts. My knees are sore. But by a month I will be back where I need to be.

I guess if I enjoyed my work as much as you obviously enjoy yours, I wouldn't even be calling it work.

I actually enjoyed being offshore a lot of the time, until a few years ago. Things changed, management changed, young heroes came to power, continual improvement at any cost was the order of the day, rules, regulations, reports and systems, all invented by people who had hardly even been offshore themselves.

It is sad to think that I'm not appreciating the extra leisure time of retirement simply because I don't have the misery, or deprivation, of work to make it feel valuable though. When my daughter was in school I was the one up at 6am every day to make sure she was up and ready to go. That I did enjoy.

[RDMcG]

King Herald said:

I guess if I enjoyed my work as much as you obviously enjoy yours, I wouldn't even be calling it work.

I actually enjoyed being offshore a lot of the time, until a few years ago. Things changed, management changed, young heroes came to power, continual improvement at any cost was the order of the day, rules, regulations, reports and systems, all invented by people who had hardly even been offshore themselves.

It is sad to think that I'm not appreciating the extra leisure time of retirement simply because I don't have the misery, or deprivation, of work to make it feel valuable though. When my daughter was in school I was the one up at 6am every day to make sure she was up and ready to go. That I did enjoy.

Thats a fair point and I am only referring to work as one of the options..I just thing that finds some thing to take you out of the house...possibly volunteer stuff. I am not working really for money but to avoid being bored which leads to depression. I have had points in my career where things did not go so well, and typically I tacked left or right to another employer Not everything in life is a success...

[King Herald]

Cerbhd said:

I'll be honest with you OP, you've done an awful lot in the last few months with the move, retiring and giving up the booze.
I've read this post and your other contributions of the other forum and I really don't think you have gotten over giving up drinking.
It is a massive commitment (which I haven't done) and you shouldn't underestimate its effect on you.
I mothballed my company last year due to stress and have been renovating a house to keep me sane as I'm only 45, when I run out of things to do I have the same feelings that you have.
People think retirement will be great but I've discovered it is not for everyone.
Try and keep positive and I really hope you feel better soon, hopefully it is a time thing
All the best
Jon

It is somewhat embarrassing that I used to tell people how well I'd do in retirement, compared to normal old folks, as I have so many things I want to do, so many projects to build, years off stuff all laid out in my mind. Plus I'm familiar with having six months a year off work....

Then this happens, and it all goes down the toilet.

People have told me that stopping drinking can take months to fully clear your system, physically and mentally, not sure I ever really believed it, but you never know. It was also pretty much what my whole social life revolved around overseas. I never used to go anywhere, or meet up with people, unless there was beer on the table, a very typical expat scenario.



However, tomorrow is a new day, things will improve, I can feel a difference just today, I feel a little more like I always used to. This thread has been cathartic, given me a place to vent some feelings that had nowhere to go.

I have had to keep a stiff upper lip for the daughter, keep a smile on the go all day, as she has no friends here now, they have all moved on and I guess her dreams/ideas/hopes to get into school with them and carry on like they did as childhood friends has gone up in smoke.

Tomorrow is a new day....

[Barmyfluid]

It's a sobering thought (scuse the pun) that the dream - retirement - is not where it's at when we get there. This thread has made me think on.
Yesterday it was a perfect winters day in Shropshire,I had a job on so drove from Shrewsbury to Stone. That in itself was a hoot in the Z4. To put the icing on the cake saw some lucky bleeder with a day off having a blat on his H2 triple. Now that alone has got to be worth getting out of bed for !
Keep your pecker up.

[King Herald]

Barmyfluid said:

It's a sobering thought (scuse the pun) that the dream - retirement - is not where it's at when we get there. This thread has made me think on.
Yesterday it was a perfect winters day in Shropshire,I had a job on so drove from Shrewsbury to Stone. That in itself was a hoot in the Z4. To put the icing on the cake saw some lucky bleeder with a day off having a blat on his H2 triple. Now that alone has got to be worth getting out of bed for !
Keep your pecker up.

Guy came through Stafford town centre in a Beemer sports car thing yesterday, I know not the model, top down, loud exhaust. Wasn't you was it?

Buying a bike and doing some European touring again is something I have planned on when time and money allow. Prices of old classics, the sort of thing that were the latest and greatest in my day, have gone crazy though. Even the retro style, like the Kawasaki Zephyr etc that came out 20 years later, are turning into expensive classics now..... I really do not go a bundle on the later Transformer style models, with sharp corners, pointy bits. and weird shapes all over, hideous.