Depression

[Derby Tup]

Luke folk are not defined by their sporting prowess (thank God). One of the perennial problems with injury is that many athletes immediately cut themselves off from the club-mates, pals, training partners etc. There is way more to sport than taking part as Stagger pointed out so well above. Everyone should do some marshaling; even wandering part way up the hill for the crack and banter is better than sitting at home

[Stagger]

Hope you're ok Andy.

[mr brightside]

After a little more thought, I have further ideas.

If you are totally attached to running and cycling.

Have or could you consider being a RO ?

You can then give a lot back and still be around like minded people.

Woodentops
Luv Shack
Des Gibbons
Britty
Bill J
Etc, etc, etc

All spring to mind in doing series of races and I'm sure there are many more too.

Creating a race must be wonderful when you see the people who have just undertaken your challenge.

Sorry Luke, just another thought in a sleepless night.

I'd be inclined to help with bofra i think, i could have helped all last season, but it kills me to see people running. Just seeing running clubs out and about is bad enough, i see one every week on the way to Tai Chi.

Some good ideas there from Stagger.

But going back to your problems: you have the diagnosis, and you even seem to know what the cure is, but it is so difficult implementing that cure. The fundamental thing is that your self-worth isn't defined by what you can do; you have intrinsic worth as a human. Getting your mind to focus on that truth is the big struggle, and I wish you all the best in this fight.

I'd love it if i had a western diagnosis for my hip and knee injuries, everyone who's had a look has drawn a blank, the only explanation comes from Chinese Medicine!

I can't live a life where i can't get out, i can't see value in it. I can't see i have a right to consume the planet's resources meaninglessly. I was never made to feel as though i was worth anything as a child, i think this belief system comes from childhood trauma. People have suggested EMDR on the NHS.

[mr brightside]

Luke,folk are not defined by our sporting prowess (thank God). One of the perennial problems with injury is that many athletes immediately cut themselves off from the club-mates, pals, training partners etc. There is way more to sport than taking part as Stagger pointed out so well above. Everyone should do some marshaling; even wandering part way up the hill for the crack and banter is better than sitting at home

I gave up chasing prowess long ago, just getting out is the new target. I might go to the Wharfedale seniors xmas party, i won't know many and many will never have seen me i've been gone for so long, but it's something to do.

The problem with getting out to wander about at races is partly the cost of fuel. I can afford it fine, it's just that when i ask myself if i'm worth £20-40 to visit a race the answer comes back as 'no'. Darren told me at Gt Wherny that i'm too hard on myself, but people have been hard on me all my life and it's developed into a self-supporting belief system. The evidence that i have value as a person usually comes from race results, that or hanging out with females- which are in very short supply.

[anthonykay]

I'd be inclined to help with bofra i think, i could have helped all last season, but it kills me to see people running. Just seeing running clubs out and about is bad enough, i see one every week on the way to Tai Chi.

OK, I can understand that it hurts to see other people doing something that you want to do but can't.

I'd love it if i had a western diagnosis for my hip and knee injuries, everyone who's had a look has drawn a blank, the only explanation comes from Chinese Medicine!

And does the Chinese medic who gave you the explanation have any ideas for treatment?

I can't live a life where i can't get out, i can't see value in it.

What do you mean by "get out"? It doesn't have to mean racing, or really strenuous stuff. Just do whatever you can without exacerbating the injuries. Can you still go walking on the hills above Wharfedale, or on moderately paced cycle rides?

After my son was born, my wife seemed to be suffering from some level of post-natal depression, and I quickly realised that me going off to races or on all-day cycle rides was not going to be appreciated. I settled into a pattern of one or two runs and a short cycle ride per week, and didn't do any races for another 14 years. But I was OK.

I can't see i have a right to consume the planet's resources meaninglessly. I was never made to feel as though i was worth anything as a child, i think this belief system comes from childhood trauma. People have suggested EMDR on the NHS.

So you know that these beliefs of worthlessness are rubbish, and you even know where they come from. Please don't give up fighting to rid yourself of this wrong thinking.

[mr brightside]

And does the Chinese medic who gave you the explanation have any ideas for treatment?

Acupuncturist. They don't so much look for a 'diagnosis' as they do a 'pattern of disharmony'. The Chinese framework doesn't work like the Western one, it isn't reductionist, everything is looked at in terms of its relationship to a wider picture. The wider picture is that my mind has been sick for decades and i show multiple signs of chronic Yin deficiency, my Kidneys malfunction which affects water regulation and causes problems with certain Qi Meridians. A pattern of Coldness and Dampness in the body is noticable.

You have to be able to shift your viewpoint to understand it all, and even then it's difficult. The Western medical yardstick might be the double-blind randomised trial or the Scientific Method; neither of these are relevant or important in Chinese medicine, it's results based not evidence based. Nobody questions the wisdom of the ancients, the results were as good then as they are now.

My problem from a Western perspective is that my body will not heal itself, and there is no explanation for why. Soft tissue problems just arrive, there is no traumatic event, try telling that to a Musculoskeletal Consultant! They scan, they palpate, they scratch their heads and tell me to stop exercising until it goes away. I tell them lack of exercise makes it worse, they can't accept it. The Western framework is unsuitable to analyse the data, nothing makes sense; in the Chinese framework they've been seeing it since 500BC, over and over again.

[Wheeze]

Luke, there is hope. There are trends to a merging of old and new world understanding of ailments. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation seems to be scratching away at this conundrum and there is no doubting that sometimes, to fix the body, first you have to fix the 'mind', whatever that concept actually is.
But early results in TMS treatment for depression are encouraging. I liken it a bit to re-booting the brain/pc.

[anthonykay]

Mr B, if you have found a Chinese practitioner whom you trust, then go and get some treatment from him/her. If thousands of years of experience shows that something works, then it doesn't matter that Scientific Method hasn't yet explained how it works. Isaac Newton made a famous comment about being like a boy playing on a beach while the great ocean of truth was undiscovered in front of him; we have waded some distance into that ocean since Newton's time, but there is still an awful lot that we don't understand, especially in medical science.

[mr brightside]

I've been having acupuncture for several months now, some of the results are very dramatic. I fear what my life might become, i fear being trapped in a cage, i fear a lifetime of managing pain without knowing fully what is going on. Nothing has worked for me in the past, pattern recognition is telling me Chinese Medicine will be another failed attempt consigned to the heap dispite promising beginnings. I question why this is happening to me, things happen for a reason, but what am i here to learn?

[Wheeze]

To Live, To Love, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy.

Just a vessel for the onward transmission of DNA.

Thats all there is! No mystery really.