Boidhre wrote:Going through a bad patch at the moment but a bit more clear headed this evening so: On playing whilst depressed: If you're like me, you get cognitively impaired when depressed. Your memory, attention span and concentration are all poorer. This makes for some very lacklustre go. There's also a strong tendency towards passivity in me when depressed both socially and on the go board. It's like you're several stones weaker all of a sudden. The effort you'd put in previously into improving your reading or whatever becomes meaningless as you're working with a more limited mental capacity for concentration, i.e. reading which is what go at my level really comes down to.
I`m having the same feelings, Padraig. Well, I`m not depressed, but I do have anxiety problems, and this affects my go severely. IMO, the most important go skill is being able to view and assess the position objectively, but when your emotions are playing up, it`s next-to-impossible. You`re not alone, and you have my complete sympathy.
Still, you have good friends. It seems you and Tom have both friendship and rivalry, and you`re getting other people into the game, too. Don`t underestimate the value of those things!