Coping with birthday blues

@Former-Member oh Sparky79 i wish i could wave my magic wand and make all your wishes come true. so that you could see your loved one in particular. life is hard at the best of times. i wish you all the happiness that you deserve.x

@Bunniekins Thankyou you beautiful, beautiful person. I'm crying.

Sorry to read about your struggles around your birthday @Former-Member

Anniversaries can certainly be hard.

I know many people struggle with birthdays and not just because they are one year older.

I very recently had a birthday.

One person rang me and I got messages from my sport team and then later from my mother and brother that was it. One phonce call and texts that's it.

I usually try to just ignore my birthday and don't usually tell people. So I don't have parties, dinners or even cakes. I just treat it like another day of the year because it's easy to try and forget it.

I don't have children, so I don't have the grief of them not acknowledging me. My nephews and niece did not get in touch with me. So I have some understanding of what you are feeling.

Sorry I can't say anything more exciting than that.

For me, getting out in nature would be good definitely

Before I had my dogs to do things with. They have both died in recent years - the last one only about 6 weeks before my birthday.

So, I suppose it's really up to you, whether you celebrate it in your own way - go to movies or something, or just ignore it

Thanks @Till23, my condolences on your fur babies, that makes anniversaries even harder due to that being a trigger. Also many happy returns for your birthday (even if I have wished you happy birthday already on the birthday thread)

I did not tell anyone on the forums my birthday @Former-Member so no one knew.

I mentioned it in one of my posts on my thread in the evening and a couple of people picked up on it through a reply which I tried to shut down.

I don't want anyone to say anything really as I'd rather forget it.

This year was also hard because my father passed away just before my birthday last year and his funeral was the day after my birthday. So it was one year anniversary of that

As you get older, you have more time to accumulate other things happening or being near your birthday

I hope you are able to move past it once the day is over, but it sounds like the day itself is going to be hard.

I hope you find some nice distractions

@Till23 Thankyou, and I pray life gives you things to create happy future birthday memories. I know it's what I hope for myself.

Yes I definitely hope you can overwrite your less than optimal birthdays with much nicer memories @Former-Member

@Till23 Also my condolences on the passing of your father, Boxing day is the trigger for me and my dad, as that was the last day he was home before being taken away in an ambulance and passing 2 weeks later in peter mac (cancer hospital here in Melbourne) It's been 4 years, but the public holiday still triggers the memories.

I'm sorry to hear about your Dad @Former-Member

My father died of cancer at my house, I looked after him at my house for the last 6 months of his life so I will always have that strong association with my birthday. He died a couple of weeks after his birthday.

I hope you are able to make the most of your birthday

hi @Former-Member i think to treat yourself with a heap of generosity and kindness over those hard days, and in my experience, i wish i'd not tried so frantically to avoid painful memories almost kidding myself that i was extra fine. It's okay if it hurts x