Dear Alison and Andrea
I was so glad to hear that you were able to have a good night with friends. It sounds like this is just the kind of 'medicine' you need. Ken and I manage to have a very active social life. We have to go to some lengths to do it. But it helps me enormously to have a bit of a 'normal' life. It doesn't make the horrid things go away, but it does help you to view them in a different and more accepting light. I have just moved through a 'cloud' but I thinks its passing. We were meant to be going out and I had to force myself to get ready, I just didn't want to go , but I made myself, crying the whole time while getting 'glammed up'(!?!) Once I was out, my mood started to lift and that was the beginning of getting out from under the 'cloud'. I have learnt to recognise when I'm feeling very low, it usually follows a period concentrated amounts of stress. Its taken such a long time to recognise these feelings, but I feel that I can get myself through them now.
Mameeskye's absolutely right, dont let things fester. let your feelings out, but then try not to dwell and move on.
take care
hendy
ps my sister went into counselling after my dad had a breakdown, she's never been able to cope with the situation since. The only kind of person I would trust with my 'issues' is a fully qualified pyschiatrist or pyschologist who specialises in helping families of sufferers of mental health and dementia and has a sound understanding of long term stress and depression. They dont have anyone like this who does counselling at my GP. Also I wouldn't want to be further stigmatised and have to declare these problems on job applications etc