anyone suffer depression?

[William Nimmo]

I operate a retail store and do woodworking as an additional source of income.
When I have a woodworking job either for myself or a customer I am usually in a great mood, however when the store keeps me out of the shop or when I have no wood projects going, I actually get depressed and cranky. I guess it is an addiction.
Is it just me?

[alex grams]

I get frustrated when I am trying to work on a project and can't make any scheduled progress. I set weekly goals for the multiple projects I have on going, and when I don't meet those goals, I get frustrated.

[frank shic]

sorry william, prozac will NOT fix this problem!

[Paul Johnstone]

I haven't had time to do much woodworking in the last 2 years.
Just a few bookcases and medicine cabinents. Work, kids, and repairs/remodeling the house has eaten up most of my time.
It's downright annoying (except for the kids part)! I really enjoy working on the latheas relaxation, and I probably haven't turned anything in at least 3 years. I bought a hollowing tool 2 years
ago and haven't taken it out of the case yet.
I've been trying to spend 30-60 minutes before bedtime during
weekdays to piddle around the shop. That's fun. Right now,
I'm making something out of foam. When that's done, I'm going
to try to start some small projects like jewelry boxes, turning
pens, scrollsaw work, etc that can be easily moved out of the way during the weekend when I need room to do the remodeling stuff.
But I've got a couple big Wood projects that I've promised the
wife for a long time, that I don't see getting started any time soon.
I need to win the lotto, just to have more free time. :)

[Tony De Masi]

As I stated to my boss some time ago " work is really starting to intefere with my life" :D

But as you can see from my sig line... NOT FOR LONG

Tony

[Gary Keedwell]

I operate a retail store and do woodworking as an additional source of income.
When I have a woodworking job either for myself or a customer I am usually in a great mood, however when the store keeps me out of the shop or when I have no wood projects going, I actually get depressed and cranky. I guess it is an addiction.
Is it just me?
William...I feel your pain...LOML even notices it. I'll get under her skin and she'll say "we have to get you a new project". I'm no headshrinker but it may have something to do with you being in retail and not really doing a job where you can actually see the results. Or it may be the actual physical thing. I know I always feel better about myself when I'm constucting something. Sometimes just mowing the lawn and seeing the results is gratifying.
We're in a Condo type situation now that hinders me from having a garden. Just a few short years ago I had a 100' X 80' plot that I used for vegetables. I grew everything from corn to winter squash and I used to love to go home and see the results after work. And spending a couple hours rototilling and weeding in the hot sun was invigorating. LOL
Wow, that's it!!!! As soon as the real estate market gets going again...I'm selling this condo.
Thanks for this talk....I feel better, now:eek: :D
Gary

[Karlan Talkington]

Couldn't diagnose as I'm not a doctor but you are not alone. I am the same way occassionally but whenever I get out to the garage and start working on a project I feel better. Its a great mood enhancer.
If you are truly concerned about it, I would see a doctor. There are other symptoms that you might be overlooking that might point to a mild case of depression or mood disorder.
Perhaps its woodworking withdrawal?? ;) Which in that case like Frank says, there's no drug for that except the smell of sawdust. :)

[Randal Stevenson]

As stated by Marvin the paranoid android....


"Don't talk to me about life"



I think I am more depressed, then not, ALWAYS. Every time I found a hobby, or something I enjoy, people want me to work it to death. (computers, cars, photography, and recently been asked about my woodworking).
I finally played dumb, and effectively showed them a Red Green style woodworking project, so they would think that was my skill level and putz off.

[Paul Engle]

And I think it gets worse the further toward winter, less hours of sunlight etc, colder , looking forward to blizzards , the birds are gone, everything sorta starts to look grey after the leaves have fallen. I guess we'd not know depression if we did not have spring and summer to enjoy .... we would be depressed all year long .... sorta.

[David Weaver]

I'm in the same boat as you guys. I also have a job where there are no real results and no end, and sometimes very long hours doing something you really aren't on board with or don't see the point of, and i think that's a large part of the problem.

The solution doesn't even have to be woodworking, it just needs to be something where I can do something and see the result and have a grasp on the whole process from beginning to end - and know where and what the beginning and end are.

In instances where I have work overtaking life for a period of months or more, I would probably be diagnosed as clinically depressed. I can't look back at the ends of those periods and see any happiness, and I get hard on other people around me. But when the work lets up, I'm fine, esp. if it means shop time or waking up both days of the weekend knowing I don't have to do anything that day other than tinker or maybe a lightweight home improvement project.

The easy solution would be to quit working. :rolleyes: I guess easy and realistic aren't often the same thing. It does lead to the dilemma of which is more important in life - a lucrative job and limited happiness or compromise on the financial side in search of happiness.

It's funny that we have this luxury now of being able to discuss what it is that makes us depressed. When my grandparents grew up, they were in the struggle of their lives during the depression and it was wall to wall work for them from wake up to sleep for a period of probably 10 years, and that really left a mark on them (i.e., it really sucked a lot of life out of them). I would guess they didn't stop to think about being depressed and they sure had it a lot harder than I probably ever will.

[Karlan Talkington]

I find myself in just such a dilemma, Dave. I sometimes equate my life to "Peter Gibbons" in the movie Office Space. Sometimes a simple road construction, gardener, roofer occupation would be more satisfying... low stress, high return on results. But then I would be compromising the financial end that provides for my family. If I could only find a job that would pay me well to let me do what I wanted to do. :)

[Al Willits]

Sounds like ya just don't like the retail business to me.
Don't feel like the lone stranger on that one, there's lots of people who aren't overjoyed at getting out of bed in the morning and going off to their day job.

Just remember the day job makes it possible to everything else ya do, consider it an inconvience in life that needs to be done to be able to do the fun things.

Cheer up, ya could live in Minn and be facing 37 months of winter...:)

Al

[David Weaver]

That movie gets quoted quite often in our office.

Someone wasn't going doing something the other day, and I said to them...."what..ahh...what would you say....you DO HERE?". And they didn't get it at first, and thought I was scolding them. They giggled.

"...I used to sit next to the window and I could see the squirrels and they were married..."

I hear that one come over the cubicle all the time, too. My dilemma is the same as yours - other people depend on my check and they don't like to live cheap :)

[Stephen Beckham]

Believe it or not - I feel the same way about work... :confused:

Okay - before you shoot me - on the weekends, I want to come back to the store to etch stuff, something, anything... Every since I moved the laser from the basement to the store, now I get depressed on weekends when I don't come by... Even if it's to make something for the kids... LOML says no otherwise...

But along the same lines - when I have customers 'bugging' me to make stuff for them, I get depressed because I'm not trying something in the laser for myself... Had it for almost two years and still addicted to playing with it...

[Greg Cole]

I don't wake up every day thinking "YAY, I get to go to work today", but I don't dread coming to work either :rolleyes: . I live well from my efforts and can more than provide for my family as well as support my hobby. I give daily thanks for being able to live comfortably.
The way I look at it is if you are unhappy at work, you won't ever be happy at home either... so you wind up miserable all the time or denying yourself the chance to try to find something enjoyable, rewarding etc. I worked at The Blodgett Oven Factory (ie Pizza Hut conveyor ovens etc) for years over the summer breaks from schools, the guys there made GREAT money for the local economy but they allowed themselves to become stuck to the paychecks. They hated their jobs and literally all were just counting down days til retirement or counting the minutes til lunch break so they could have a beer or 2 and then start the countdown to the end of the day for the same reason. I do
I learned alot from being around those guys for many summers and a few months after college, learned how I didn't want to live my life...

Cheers,
Greg

[Jim Becker]

I do understand what you mean and personally don't consider it "depression"...more like frustration and disappointment--when I'm kept from the avocation I love to do. The reasons are many, but the one that hurts the most is when I have to effect business travel on or over a weekend. (Like this past Sunday when I flew to Mexico City) But sometimes life is just that way. And I'm taking most of tomorrow off and spending part of it in the shop!

[Karlan Talkington]

That is a great way to look at it, Greg.

I AM thankful that I make enough even in the DC area to allow my wife to stay at home for the kids and really my job isn't all that bad, I'd just rather be making sawdust. :)

You are right though, if you are miserable at work you will more than likely bring it home. Some days are rough which makes me also grateful for the ability to commute by bicycle. Gives me some time to unwind and pedal the stress away.

[Tom Veatch]

... I actually get depressed and cranky. I guess it is an addiction.
...

What Jim said:


I do understand what you mean and personally don't consider it "depression"...more like frustration and disappointment--

I'm afraid too many people use the term "depression" too loosely. A real clinical depression or unipolar disorder (http://www.bipolarcentral.com/otherillnesses/unipolar_disorder.asp)is nothing to fool around with. I've been there and can tell you it's a killer. I was lucky.

[Gary Keedwell]

I'm afraid too many people use the term "depression" too loosely. A real clinical depression or unipolar disorder (http://www.bipolarcentral.com/otherillnesses/unipolar_disorder.asp)is nothing to fool around with. I've been there and can tell you it's a killer. I was lucky.
[/QUOTE]

You are right Tom..In this age of "feel good about yourself" people confuse the natural "down in the dumps" with real depression. The problem is that doctors are all too willing to say your depressed and prescribe some drugs to give you a "false" sense of well being, It doesn't cure you because when it wears off ..you take some more.
Drug companies are not innocent either. They advertise and give doctors free samples. There's ways of fighting "depression". Trouble is that people get into themselves too much. Get out there and exercise and get the "natural" endorphins going in your brain. Get out there and do some work for an older person down the street. Volunteer you services. You just might start feeling good about yourself and realize thyat your problems are rather small compared to alot of poor souls.;)
Gary

[Mike Wilkins]

I get depressed every time I look in the Felder catalog.

[Rick Gibson]

my hobby for years was ham radio. Then I started working in electronics. Lost interest in the hobby. A hobby and work have to be totally different or there is no relaxation. I enjoyed my job while I was working (some of the people I had to work with was another thing) Like I used to tell my boss when he wanted me to work overtime "I come to work to get enough money to enjoy my time off with my family, if I'm working I am not enjoying my time off. "NO""

I worked in nuclear power plants for years and yes I did work some overtime when I felt it was justified. The family always came first. Because of that I am not worried about the fact my kids will choose my retirement home if it should eventually come to that.

I've also told them they should check in regularly. The stench of a rotting corpse could leach into the walls of a house and really ruin it's resale value. They check with us often:).

[Tim Wagner]

I get depressed from the late fall till spring time. I worrie most about my aging parents, mostly because both grandparants passed in the cold months. my grandmother on jan 11th 2000 and then my grandfather on dec 25th that same year. I absolutly hate driving too and from work in the dark.

chances are that when I have no more ties here, i would move to FL AZ or CA.

now I am depressed. :(

[Gary Keedwell]

I get depressed from the late fall till spring time. I worrie most about my aging parents, mostly because both grandparants passed in the cold months. my grandmother on jan 11th 2000 and then my grandfather on dec 25th that same year. I absolutly hate driving too and from work in the dark.

chances are that when I have no more ties here, i would move to FL AZ or CA.

now I am depressed. :(
I'm with you, Tim. I've about had it with these New England winters. LOML and I talk about AZ all the time. Retirement not far away...I hope.:eek: :o
Gary

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Every one suffers depression at one time or other - everyone.

I prefer heroin but it's gotten hard to come by in the last 80 or so years so I have to settle for beer.

[Jon Lanier]

The 'experts' tell us that anything that becomes a habit and gets interrupted, whether it be a good or bad habit, there tends to be a feeling of loss. This could be it what your going through.

[Gary Keedwell]

The 'experts' tell us that anything that becomes a habit and gets interrupted, whether it be a good or bad habit, there tends to be a feeling of loss. This could be it what your going through.
Some losses are greater then others. I used to come home every day to my first wife. When it got interrupted (divorce) I didn't feel any loss.:eek: :p
Gary