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Thread: anyone suffer depression?

  1. #1

    anyone suffer depression?

    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?

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    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.

  3. #3
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    walnut creek, california
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    sorry william, prozac will NOT fix this problem!

  4. #4
    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.

  5. #5
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    Front Royal, Va.
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    As I stated to my boss some time ago " work is really starting to intefere with my life"

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

    Tony
    Tony

    "Soldier On"

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Plymouth County, Massachusetts
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    Quote Originally Posted by William Nimmo View Post
    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
    Gary
    Last edited by Gary Keedwell; 11-01-2007 at 11:33 AM. Reason: spell

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Ashburn, Virginia
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    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.
    -==--==--==--==--==--==--==-
    Karlan Talkington

    "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day,
    that my children may have peace." -- Thomas Paine

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  8. #8
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    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.

  9. #9
    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.
    John 3:16

  10. #10
    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. 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.

  11. #11
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    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.
    -==--==--==--==--==--==--==-
    Karlan Talkington

    "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day,
    that my children may have peace." -- Thomas Paine

    Support the Creek! Donate Today!

  12. #12
    Join Date
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    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
    Remember our vets, they need our help, just like they helped us.

  13. #13
    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

  14. #14
    Believe it or not - I feel the same way about work...

    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...
    Steve Beckham

    Epilog Mini 24 with 45 Watt, Ricoh GX 7000 Sublimation, Corel X3, Corel X4 and PhotoGrav, Recently replaced the two 'used' SWF machines with brand new Barudans.

  15. #15
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    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 . 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

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