How Do I Cope?

Like a lot of you on this forum, I've been finding this year's SAD symptons a lot more severe than usual, a lot harder to cope with.

This is mostly due to the terrible summer we've all suffered through, but in my particular case made harder by the death of my sister in May this year. She was 3 years younger than me and her death was very sudden and unexpected.

I've been having real trouble coping - I had a month on the sick in September and have been having difficulty coping at work since I got back. I work in a Call Centre, and as I'm sure you can all appreciate, talking to people all day isn't an ideal situation when all you want to do is pull the duvet over your head and hope the world goes away until Spring.

Then last Saturday my stepdad died suddenly at home. Like my sister it was unexpected, and I'm terrified that I'm not going to be able to cope. I'm all the family my mother has left now - how do I give her the support she needs when I barely have the emotional resources to get out of bed at the moment?

I appreciate that there is no miracle answer that will magically solve my problems for me, but I would be grateful for any advice those of you who have had similar experiences might have to give. Thanks.

I'm too groggy to pull off a real message (doing morning light therapy atm), but my heart really goes out to you.


Jeanne

Thanks everyone. Still staying at my Mum's at the moment so don't have regular internet access. Will post again when I'm back home.

Loss is painful and has so many emotional ingredients and threads that you feel so different every day. My parents died in 1977 and 1983 when I was reasonably young and everyone around me was getting on with their lives have a great time while I just wanted to die. A good friend of mine who is also a doctor got me a psychotherapist and she worked with my GP to put me on ADs for a short while - for my protection really. The combination worked but it took years to unravel layers of pain. But it worked and I emerged more settled and more understanding of what others go through - so important education i guess. Best of luck ...