Heya Casper,

I'm sorry that everything went that way, I myself suffered from severe depression, suicidal thoughts, social anxiety and panic, and I know how mental issues can make us feel horrid, most of the time in ways it's difficult or even painful to explain.

I'm 29 now and a year ago my mum died, I was made redundant from the job I was at for 7 years, I was off for 6 months and ended up getting another job where I was effectively bullied and this kicked my anxiety and panic attacks off even worse than last time, I left just a couple of weeks ago as I couldn't take it anymore and need to sort my health out.

When mum passed away the music died for me as she'd always come to listen to me play, and to be honest, I wasn't half bad, I could play Metallicas Fade to Black etc...but since that day i've not been able to pick up any of my guitars, and barely listen to music because I shared so much of it with her.

So anyway, i've started on medication and starting to feel a -little- better, and I've thought I have to get back into this, so I treated myself to a new stratocaster and tried playing the old tracks I used to...and i've basically lost all of my skill and can't remember much theory. So that's why i'm here, to start from the beginning, right from the fundamentals, because I don't want to let my mind take this away from me, I loved music, and I want to love it again and share it with fiancee who's been through hell and back with my problems!

To sum it up, you're not alone, we're not weird, we're not crazy, we're just us. That's how we are and we need to beat it and learn some guitar (again :P)! We can do it, it's going to take time and patience, but we'll get there.

Hope you're doing ok, and keep playing ZZSmilieZZ