great, caring, intelligent, wonderful people. They have certainly helped keep me sane lo these many years (well, somewhat sane, anyway!)

a belated welcome to DU--so sorry you have been going through so much, and hope it starts getting better soon.

Whether it will keep me sane or not, I'm hanging around for awhile....

I don't know how serious you were about the getting-older thing, but I've enjoyed reading "Aging as a Spiritual Practice." It's made me feel pretty good about the whole process.

The clinical depression is a harder nut to crack. I hope the support of your friends here is a help to you.

I am "only" 66, but health issues make me feel much older and limited in what I can do, physically and sometime mentally. I get brain fog, something awful, sometimes and my cognitive skills are about squat then. There are days when writing a few lines take forever to express a simple thought.

The worst part is that I've lost so many good friends and family, who passed before their time. And seeing so many celebrities I grew up with, going to their great reward (hopefully). All that serves to making me feel lonely and out of sync.

So I don't have friends who are close enough to ask support for. And I don't like to lean on my grown children with their busy lives.

I am trying a new regimen of L-Theanine and L-Tryptophan which seems promising so far for the depression. I am seriously drug resistant, so these may work for awhile, til I hit the proverbial brick wall...

Thank you so much for responding, renate and recommending that book. I will look for it on Amazon and ebay.

Sometimes it takes just a small gesture of outreach to make a big impact. Don't let negative people like the band guy get you down. There are some very nice people at DU.

I'm all teary-eyed, feeling warm and fuzzy.

I said this earlier tonight about our POTUS. But it applies here too.

My heart is full.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

I got another! I SO wish I could thank the sweethearts who gave them to me--they really made me feel good.