Hi, my name is Colin123!

Colin123

Hi, I am new on here and at present don't know what to expect or what's available 

Ross_Alumni

Hello @Colin123

Welcome to the community, it's lovely to see you join us. 

We have many discussions ongoing on the community, it might be worth navigating to the Discussions tab to see a list of everything that has been talked about recently. If you have any questions about anything then you are more than welcome to ask.

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community Feel free to join in or ask any questions 

chiarieds

Hi @Colin123 - & welcome to the community from me too. Please have a look around the forum, & join in with any discussions that interest you. You can also start other posts yourself, as well as just chat here any time.

L_Volunteer

Hi @Colin123

Welcome to Scope's forum. It is great to see you have joined us. In response to your question, most broadly we aim to provide a supportive and friendly discussion space. More specifically, we provide a space where people can chat generally with each other (usually in the Coffee Lounge!) or about their experiences and any questions they may have. Would you like to tell us more about what you are hoping to get out of using Scope's forum? We may then be able to guide you to areas of the website you find the most interesting and useful. Take care for now and I will look forward to hearing from you again soon 

Colin123

I was diagnosed as mentally depressed and put on pills and been awaiting counselling, was told recently I will have to wait until January / February 2022 for this...

Colin123

Thanks Everyone for welcoming me, will take a little while to see how the site works , have made a post in craft and photography, love crafting and gardening. 

L_Volunteer

Hi @Colin123, 

Sorry to hear this. You are right, waiting times can be long unfortunately for mental health care and support. Would you like to tell us more about how you are feeling? How is your medication going for you? - could you discuss this with your GP? Whilst waiting for counselling, you may benefit from other support services such as Mind (https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/depression/about-depression/), Depression UK (http://depressionuk.org/) and Shout (https://giveusashout.org/). We also have a discussion section dedicated to talking about mental health and wellbeing which you can find at https://forum.scope.org.uk/categories/mental-health-issues. Good luck with your counselling when it is your time, I hope it helps and I hope your appointment comes faster than expected. I hope this helps but if there is anything else that we can do to support you, please don't hesitate to let us know 

Colin123

My mental state is a long story, I had counselling last year too, I have issues with ex wife and finding it very hard to go out , I am still a National Trust member , I make plans to visit but cant get out the door ? since the beginning of the Pandemic and not being able to go out much with being extremally venerable, my children work in care homes so were unable to visit...I seem to have a mental block to going out , I have managed on about 8 occasions to go to local parks with woods with my camera, Now winter is upon us that affects my arthritis and fibromyalgia . I am a positive person but sometimes you cave in, I am in a good place at the moment, I would never thing of doing anything silly.

Tori_Scope

Hi @colin123  

As L_Volunteer has said, waiting times for things like counselling can unfortunately be quite long. It's positive that you're on the waiting list, though, so let's hope you get to speak to someone sooner rather than later.

Did the counselling you had last year help at all? 

I'm sorry to hear that you've been finding it difficult to get out. It can be especially difficult when there are a number of factors at play, such as the colder weather along with mental health reasons and of course the pandemic! 

One thing I'd suggest is to plan smaller, more regular, trips out. For example, going on a short local walk, or nipping out to the shop and getting yourself a drink. Doing this on a regular basis could help you to get more used to going outside a bit more, and you could hopefully work your way up from there. 

I'm glad to hear that you're in a more positive place at the moment

poppy123456

Charlie1973 said:

Hi, how is everyone this evening? 

I don’t know if there is a chat facility on this site in real time (as most messages seem several hours or even days past?) 

There's no "real time chat." You can private message someone once you've reached 25 posts. There's the virtual coffee lounge where members post various things. There's games in there that you can join in with too. Link is here. https://forum.scope.org.uk/categories/coffee-lounge

Tori_Scope

as most messages seem several hours or even days past?

What do you mean by this @Charlie1973? Posts and comments should appear as you send them but, of course, people don't always reply to stuff straight away.