STEPHEN FRY

BethMeredith - don't expect too much of yourself. I find that just doing something small, such as a walk in the garden, can help me on the road to being a bit more positive. I wouldn't worry about the teachers: at least they know now that you have a real problem, and won't give you a hard time.

Give yourself a treat every day - even if it is just a cup of coffee with cream (my own favourite) or listen to your favourite music, or put on a great DVD. I use 'Love Actually' as part of my depression treatment, plus other personal favourites such as Shirley Valentine, Educating Rita or V for Vendetta. I don't think it is coincidental that all those last three films feature women who start off powerless but end up really strong.

You ARE strong inside - you wouldn't be fighting the condition on here if you weren't - so give it time, and take little steps to get back into the world. Friends can be every bit as good as a counsellor sometimes.

I have found like-minded friends and this is a great help. I am quite old, and have found my more recent friends through U3A. When I was young, I made all my friends through a hiking club and a cycle touring club (YHA and CTC) None of these are mainstream organisation, but we are not mainstream , are we?

Well, you had a useless counsellor, Beth, so forget him!

I don't know many coping strategies, except to tell yourself the true fact that it is NOT your fault. Do small things that take very little time, instead of feeling guilty for not achieving anything major. And draw comfort from your children - I always did. Try to eat well.

And don't try to dig deeply into things that have happened that were traumatic in the past. I believe in leaving well enough alone.

Another thing that helps me is nature - looking at flowers, walking along a grassy path, planting seeds in my garden, looking at a tree against a blue sky.......these things take the edge off unhappiness.

I do hope things improve for you soon. I think they will, because you are talking on here!

Well, first of all.... Sorry for my english, I try to do my best

I need to tell you something.

I didn


k

s how I got in touch with Stephen Fry.

And surfing the internet finding more stuff about the best friend of Hugh, I found out that there is a documentary about depression that


h

t have been here with me, I wouldn´t be here right now.

Well, I was really surprised how honestly Stephen spoke about his bipolar.
A famous Show star, comedian or whatever in Germany would not (no no never ever!!!) speak that honestly about a mental illnes.

I liked it very very much, how polite Stephen spoke to the different people, listened and was so interessted in them.
And I saw, that my emotions, my feelings and sadness is not so different from people like I use to think.

I registred here to say THANK YOU MR. STEPHEN FRY for this very good movie, for showing me that I am not alone with this, to show me, that it


n

t say "thanks for all your suicidal tendencies although you are rich and famous", but I never thought that a famous and beloved one could feel the same way like I do.

Although I have read and watched shows or talked to my psychiatrist, I thought that famous people feel sad, but get over the hump, get through this anyway.

(Hope you understand my strange english )

Thank you so much for changing my mind!

Just found the true meaning of 'Pom'. It started off as 'immigrant' but Australians like to play with words, so immigrant became 'Jimmy Grant', which sort of sounded a bit like 'pomegranate' which morphed into 'Pom' about 100 years ago.

My own view is that it is an acronym: POM = Perfection Of Mankind. For some reason the locals don't believe me, but I say it is self evident.

PS
Having recently recovered from severe gastro-enteritis I am holding off depression for now. It sort of hovers in the background, but, well, let's hope it fades away.