I have anxiety/depresssion/panic disorder/chronic pain, and have done so over a number of years. I have good professional support and have coped on my own for the most part with their assistance. I have a husband who no matter what can not understand my conditions & that is fine, it is his make up, my parents are deceased, I have a 10 yr old son with learning difficulties & level 1 Autism, I have suffered workplace bullying and resigned as a result and started studying; I am in my final year of a Masters in Social Work and have just started a part time job this year. I have had neck surgery a week ago for damage discs in my neck and so far things seem to be going well with that. I am hoping that it will help with the other aches and pains I have felt over the time, as I wish to get fit and exercise regularly, as I know this is good for mental health. My psychologist and I have discussed the issue of making a social network, that is able to support my needs to connect with people; as my parents and former work colleagues were the ones doing this previously and their was a balance between home and work for me, but since I have not worked for 2 years, I have found I have become incredibly lonely. How do you make new friends as an adult, I don't even know what type of things I could do as a hobby, as my life has always been my family. My husband was always the one who was out and about joining groups and things and I was at home on my own or with my son when he came along, I have spent a lot of time alone. Now my mother-in-law is living near us and he spends most of his time helping her, so I have this week decided that I need to start to get my life back on track & look at my surgery as a way of doing this, we live about 20 min out of a larger town and the fact we both work there & our son attends school there have decided that we will sell and move into there, which will be good & I am excited, but in the mean time, how do I try to maintain positive and start to make connections, as I can see it will be very easy for me to slip back down depression wise, as I spend a lot of time on my own & I don't want to feel as depressed as I was prior to surgery, thanks.
