I don't know which is worse, the physical affliction suffered by those above, or that suffered by myself, where mental incapacity has pretty much the same effect....
Is it worse to suffer the pain and discomfort to reach and then fish one's choice of water, or to stride purposefully to that same place with lot's of tackle and bait carefully prepared, only to find it totally impossible to even open up the bag and set up a rod, and eventually turning back toward home without whetting a line ?
This malady has been with me since the age of 21 when I suffered my first breakdown and remains to this day, some 50 years later. Unfortunately, I cannot control or even know when the depression will take hold or how long it will last, and this is where I am at present, when two recent visits to a water have ended up in failure to fish, and this after months of 'freedom ' in every sense of the word. How odd it must sound to other folk to hear someone say they can think about how and where to fish each and every day, but not be able to achieve it for all the money in the world, were it offered.....
Hopefully this current bout will soon pass and I will again find myself sitting at the waters edge, but until then I will pleasure walk for miles and do what I have done over the years, and that's be extremely patient ................It takes it's own time.
We all have our crosses to bear as we continue through life and it is a lucky man indeed who completes his unhindered by poor physical or mental health, so all the above have my sincere sympathies, if not for different reasons to my own....