How was 2018 for you?

[Gus Mears]

Mediocre overall.On the positive side, met my other half and moved in with her, got a promotion and relocated and thus stopped having a commute. 

On the other hand, my Dad's battle with alcoholism has been horrendous and dealing with him has resulted in some of the worst days of my life. It's been emotionally draining in the extreme and been awful for the old depression and anxiety. I also desperately want to change who I work for as this place is a mess, but that's probably going to require me commuting again. 

I hope everyone's 2019 is better than the year before! There's a lot of top, top people on here who deserve a good one.

[BomberPat]

It wasn't great. A close friend took his own life at the end of 2017, and I found out on New Year's Eve that year, so much of the start of 2018 was taken up with coming to terms with that, with its impact on my own mental health, on the funeral, and a lot of, "well, now what?" questions among his friends and family. That cast a shadow over a lot of the year.

Another friend passed away in February, though in that case at least not unexpectedly. 

Work was a bit of a shambles - a lot of factors both internal and external conspired to make my job considerably less enjoyable than it had been in previous years, and made me start tentatively looking elsewhere. Went on strike early in December, and there's still been no formal response from the employer, no attempt to renegotiate with the union.

The general state of the world made me miserable/angry/anxious more often than not.

There was some good stuff - I spent more time with my extended family than I have done in a long time, took my two youngest nephews to their first wrestling show, helped out in a food bank with my half-brother over Christmas, and my youngest nephew was born this year.

Wrestling brought some good times - while it didn't feel like a step forward as much as most years do for CIWW, for a lot of reasons, we saw our crew grow to include some new faces, some promising new trainees, and a UK-based wrestler joining the fold, and it's a year that I hope we can build on for the future. As a fan, I managed to get to a whole bunch of Pro Wrestling EVE shows, one Fight Club Pro show and one MegaSlam show (think that's the lot...), spend most of those shows with good friends, make some new ones, see some amazing wrestling, and tick some of the biggest names off my wrestling fan bucket list (mostly Aja Kong), so that's all good stuff.

[David]

2017 and 2016 were actually the shit years for me, while 2018 has been relatively decent. I've somehow managed to find myself virtually semi-retired before hitting 40, which is kind of weird. What work I do these days is done entirely remotely, so as long as I have a laptop and an internet connection I'm good to go.

I don't really have much pressure as far as debts and a mortgage goes, and spend my time alternating between the South of Spain and the UK, depending on the weather, and usually travel to other places four or five times a year on top of that. 

All in all, I'm a pretty fortunate fella at the moment, which is nice, as 2017 and 2016 were a right bastard in all honesty.

[deathrey]

17 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Hey,  @deathrey , sorry I can't be much help with any of the other stuff but you can and should get a mouth guard made by a dentist. Stopping you from grinding your teeth will not only prevent future pain and long-term damage it will alleviate the jaw ache and and related headaches you might get from the grinding.

My sister and my wife both have one and it has really helped.

Thanks Chest, I'll look in to that 🙂

[Accident Prone]

First, I'm truly sorry for some of the situations you lot have yourselves in. I hope the new year provides more positive news. There's always someone to talk to and support is incredibly important during these trying times.

For me, it was a mixed bag.

Still stuck in the same low paying job. Tried my very best to remedy this by going on a whirlwind interview tour of the West Midlands during the Spring and Summer, only for that to fail and send me into a bit of a downward spiral. It shattered my confidence and I left social media in order to keep a low profile and work on myself. Feeling much better now and I'm ready to take another stab at it.

My circle of friends has decreased and my family is on the verge of breaking, both incidents are to do with massively exaggerated arguments that could easily solved over a pint and some light moderation. But no one in either situation wants to listen.

Last month in particular was really rough as my home was the victim of an attempted house invasion. Three smashed windows and a destroyed car later, we find out that we're not covered for any of it so we're paying for all the repairs and replacements out of our own pockets. Even the council charged us for boarding up our living room windows and front door, which was a very nice invoice to wake up to. Totally lost all belief and trust in the police, the system and the local governance.

There was some good though. Me and my friends went to Houston and New Orleans for WrestleMania weekend which was an amazing experience. 10 days spent with my best mates; the food, the drink, the people, everything was fantastic. So many great memories. Hell, even 'Mania itself was all right.

After going through a really rough patch in 2017 and into 2018, me and the missus have come out of it stronger than ever. We fought and fought through all the troubles, and there were some heart wrenching moments in 2017 where I thought that it was going to end, but I'm incredibly happy that we both continued on and made it to the other side. We celebrated out 7th anniversary and went on to finally book the date and venue for our wedding this year.

I got into the best shape I've been in since my mid-20s, made constant improvements to our house and finally started a savings account (which came in handy during last month's repairs). Despite my job being well-below what I should be earning at my age, it's still better than my old retail job and It allows me a lot of freedom to listen to podcasts and discover new music. And the friends I stuck next to are the absolute best.

So all in all, could've been a lot better but could've been a lot worse.

 

 

[garynysmon]

10 hours ago, deathrey said:

I've had pretty much the same thing happen to me towards the end of this year. I lost my grandma at the beginning of October (who was 102 but very healthy - still walking around on her own etc) very suddenly, she went in to hospital on Saturday with high blood pressure, had very sudden l lung failure on Sunday and died on Tuesday. She lived with me and my family since I was 5 so was like a second mother to me. Three weeks later I miscarried my first baby at 11 weeks. October 2018 was the worst month of my life so far.

People really don't talk about miscarriages, I've had so many people at work say 'It happen to me too' and then walk away.  It seems to happen to a lot of people and I know it's painful to talk about it but as a society we should. I know I go over old ground a lot but people seem to be keen to just tell me I need to move on, which I know I do but talking helps processing. Getting professional support has been pretty much impossible. 

Thanks.

As I mentioned earlier, its been a real eye opener how many people we know that have opened up about miscarriages since we started mentioning it, but I can't help but think it would help if it were more 'out there' as an issue.

I must admit that at the time we did feel a bit alone and unable to open up.

[eugenespeed]

Second half way better than the first. 

The first half had it's moments, but I was ill for most of it. Highlight probably be seeing Morrissey at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena. However, I was in and out of hospital. 
 

Then July hit and life just became awesome. From then to the end of the year, saw The Lancashire Hotpots live 5 times, plus Black Grape, Mull Historical Society, Slayer, Anthrax, Lamb of God and Obituary, Suggs doing a solo stand up, plus tonnes of other local bands. Also got involved in community radio again. 

Here's to 2019 being more like the second half of last year than the first! 

[Ricc1PW]

awful. just shit.

 

used and abused and dropped by a girl I massively had fallen for - resulted in destroying my mental health. now on medication for depression, I have put weight on, and struggled with my relationship with alcohol, and drugs. and in debt because of money I spent on her for various things.

I'm trying though, to turn it around - drinking less, trying to address the debt, and have no contact with her (although that's not entirely my choice, obviously) hopefully good things will happen in 2019.