Introduction

Hi @Shaz51

Better now I have heard from @HenryX! I was starting to worry. I am doing well thanks. Keeping very busy. I have started university studies and have hit the ground running. Just had a Spanish practice session for a group assignment and all we did was work on the script. I have to get a week ahead in that so we can finish the assignment next week. Filming it Friday 18th. I am doing a double major in Psychology and Spanish but I almost pulled out entirely on Thursday night. I was having a series of self sabotaging thoughts but my psychologist worked through them with me and I feel a lot better now.

How’s your life going?

Meggle

Hi @Oaktree

Very pleased to hear that your study program is up and running and that you are sounding so positive. I am familiar with self sabotaging thoughts and feelings. So while I can empathise, I am also glad that, with the support of your psychologist, you were able to climb through and over the problems.

At the moment, I think that my recent optimism about medication changes has taken something of a beating. It appears that I am going to have to go back to the AP dosage that I had previously been taking. I have still reduced the quantity of pain relief medication significantly, by more than half, and am taking the basic amount that I need for pain management.

I am really having to come back to basics and review where I am at and what I want to accomplish during the next ten to twenty years - as far as I ultimately get. In another post I mentioned review and consolidation. A lot of the material that I have collected, during the past 30 odd years, needs to be sorted, disposed of as worthless (tip material), given away, sold, or decisions made regarding being retained by me or distributed to others who may be able to use or value the items, as much as, or more than I do.

All this while recognising that my physical capacity is diminishing fairly rapidly, as a result of age and the back issues that I have had. Keeping in mind that I have, I believe, retained as much capacity because of the medical treatment and operations that have been done.

In my mind is the desire to reduce what I have to just what I need to be able to continue doing what I enjoy and the items of personal value. The three things that I now wish to focus on are; garden, vegetable and pleasure, aquaponics (fish and vegetables) and repairs to my accommodation. I am fortunate to own the property in which I live and I can see that I can be comfortable, in that respect, for the remaining part of my life.

In a discussion with the counsellor last week, I said that I had decided that further tertiary studies was going to add a significant level of pressure to me. There is likely, also, to be limited opportunity for me to use the product of that study. Consequently, I had decided not to proceed with an application for admission to the course/s that I had been considering. Interestingly, a different outcome to what you arrived at. However, I do see the possibility of you using what you will have accomplished through your studies.

While, on the forum, I will be responding to tags, I intend being less active for a while. Where you and various others include me with a tag, I will be pleased to respond. Likewise, I will keep contact with those people with whom I have felt comfortable corresponding, being you and others, with whom mutually supportive relationships have been established. However, I won't be as actively engaging with as many members as I had before, at least for a while.

Look forward to talking with you again soon and, hopefully, hearing positive results of progress in studies and any other aspects of life that you may wish to share.

With My Very Best Wishes

@HenryX

My dearest friend @HenryX

I am so sorry that the reduction in your anti depressant didn’t go as hoped. These things tend to be a bit trial and error. I am also worried about your mental state as from your posts you seem a bit down in the dumps. I hope for your sake that this passes quickly. It will pass like a cloud but it just needs some time. I do agree with you that university studies adds a certain amount of stress and pressure but it can be rewarding whether or not you ultimately use the knowledge gained. Education is never a bad thing. I believe that you take what you have learned during this life onto the next stage (whatever you believe that is). I appreciate your friendship and that you are willing to continue to correspond with me at times. I would sure miss you if you disappeared. You have come to mean a lot to me. I hope that you are ok.

with love,

Meggle 💜

Hello @Oaktree

Thank you very much for your note received earlier this afternoon.

While I would prefer not to have to take the medication, it is apparent that, for the time being, I need to continue to take the prescribed amount. Maybe when I have recovered stability, I may take the opportunity to reduce in a more controlled manner. This time, the reduction was because of shortage of supply, over the Christmas period and apparently, in some way, affected by covid. As I had initially indicated, I was hopeful that the reduction may have been ok. However, I am now back to full dosage and gradually pulling everything together again.

I also appreciate your concern expressed about how I have been feeling. That is the reason that I have decided to "take a back seat" for a while, here on the forum. I have been putting a lot of time and "mental effort" into what I offer and I realised that I may have been extending myself too much. With regard to you and a number of others, with whom I have established a pleasant and, I hope, mutually enjoyable and beneficial correspondence, I would like to be able to maintain that contact.

Often, the thought has come to mind that I wished that I did not have such a wide range of interests. But, recently, I have become aware that I can focus my attention on a limited range of interests, as I described in my last note. That simply means that consolidation and focus may serve me best at the present time, particularly if the focus is on interests that I can share with the other important people in my life, particularly with my daughter and grandson. That does not preclude an expansion of that range of interests at some time, if I feel that I have the desire and capacity to do so.

I am pleased to continue our correspondence and likewise appreciate the fact that you enjoy and value our connection and friendship which, as you state, means a lot to you as it does to and for me also. I won't be disappearing unexpectedly or without notice, unless that decision is taken out of my hands.

With My Very Best Wishes

@HenryX

Hello @HenryX and @Oaktree

I hope you don't mind me popping in?

I came looking for you @HenryX to say hi and let you know I appreciate you. I'm sorry to read of your struggles. I'm proud you are able to take charge of your needs and take the necessary back seat for now here. You give a great deal to so many and it's ok for you to step back. Please take care you are a wonderful soul dear Henry.

You sound good Meggle, that makes me smile. Take care too of you 🌼

Hello @Anastasia and @Oaktree

@Emelia8and @Appleblossom

Thank you very much @Anastasia, for your message and the sentiments that you expressed. I find it reassuring to know that my connection and correspondence, particularly with you and various other members, is valued and appreciated.

My thoughts are with you, since you have been dealing with a great deal recently. And also with @Emelia8 as she deals with her own issues at the present time.

I am also aware of the personal distress felt by @Appleblossom and which is felt by so many others, because of events in Europe and particularly concern for the people in Ukraine.

With My Very Best Wishes to You All

@HenryX

Hi @HenryX

It has been a few weeks since we conversed. I hope that you are doing better now. Hopefully your depression has lifted a bit. I am doing ok but I have been bouncing from one stressor to another mostly university related. I nearly quit again the other day. I just get so stressed out and then I go into panic mode.

What have you been doing? I hope that now the weather has cooled that you have been able to get out in the garden.

Lots of love to you,

Meggle

Hello @HenryX @Anastasia @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @TAB @Oaktree @Emelia8

A fleeting hello.

I have no idea of where everyone is at.

I can see that some of you are struggling.

For some ongoing.

I feel exactly the same about Ukraine. Breaks my heart .. Have relatives in Denmark and Estonia.

No matter what part of the world; heart breaking

love to you all

one day at a time still for me

rarely on computer still

A virtual hug

Sophia

Hello and hugs @Sophia1 ❤❤❤

..Macht's Gut @Sophia1 🙂Vielen Dank fuer dein Post , gute wuensche auch fur deine Verwandten 😎