I an impressed with the action of your local cops Mups. Most people have a mobile these days and a warning from the police could possibly prevent people risking a swim in wild water.
The barrel is a nice idea but âŠâŠhow do you get out ?
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Hmm - never though of that!
Itâs not easy!
You have to be tall enough and flexible when you stand up to wriggle your leg out over the edge and onto a nearby wall or step ladder.
Lots of people have a small step stool inside the barrel to make it easier
Or the fit and the nutters just push up with their arms to get their bottom on the edge, then spin and twist their legs over the side and jump down ( ruddy dangerous!)
Iâm too short to do the barrel safely, maybe I need a half barrel!
But Iâve got my paddling pool and the sea again now 
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Ever tried it and if not why not and if not how can anyone comment on it?
So if youâve never âsufferedâ from depression how do you know?
My first wife was a manic depressive. Not that it has anything to do with you.
Iâll let you use your imagination! 
Pull yourself together and count your blessings is ok advice for the average someone who is wallowing a bit in self pity.
But for someone who is suffering from serious depression itâs rather like telling someone with a broken leg to go for a nice long walk and youâll soon feel better.
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Well that cuts me out then. If I even managed to get in there, Iâd never be seen alive again!
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Fair comment Todger. BUT, I did have a very difficult and unhappy time in my life a long while back, and I do know that telling me to buck up and pull myself together, would not have done the trick.
You can only keep going for so long when things keep piling up around you higher and higher, although I realise some folks have a much higher tolerance of âanguishâ then others, same as we all have different pain thresholds too.
If someone was in extreme physical pain, would you tell them to buck up and get on with it too?
No.
Never felt the need.
Seen the effects it had on friends!
I have heard it can be useful medicinally.
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I must confess that on the day that I graduated I ceased to use anything including cigarettes from that day forth. Thereafter although I had the occasional cigar that was it. Before I graduated it was anything other than psychedelic stuff at every opportunity! It was GRRREAT! Now Iâm not permitted any booze. Not a real problem, I was never a p*ss artist.
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To be honest I was being a bit naughty. Someone a really depressed state canât possibly âjust pull themselves togetherâ. Itâs a dreadful thing to tell someone in such a state. Even I wouldnât do such a thing.
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Glad to hear that Todger.
Now behave yourself. 
Behave myself? Purleese! Thatâs asking much too much! (But Iâll try a bit!)
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Oh lord, thatâll make him even more trying!
Hah, yes Ruthio, youâre probably right, but letâs give the man the benefit of the doubt, and at least you know where you stand with someone who says it as he sees it.
(Good God, what am I saying)! 
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Over many years, Iâve found these two descriptions of depression helpful to recall.
- Depression is: The inability to construct a future.
- Depression means: The needs are not being met.
Make of those what you will. I find them fascinating and even inspirational, regarding finding personal therapies that involve no medication/s.
I recall from somewhere that itâs anger directed towards the self. That to overcome it is to accept & love yourself as you are. One mental image is of being in a pit that appears to be inescapable and not wanting to turn around to open the door which is behind you. Itâs funnily enough a place of refuge for some. Because holding onto that anger & anxiety is easier than letting go and walking through the door into the unknown. I say this after years of caring for someone with severe depression, the type that at its worst can make you catatonic. Your own personal prison for which you have the key but are unable to use it because you are also the Judge, prison guard and at worst executioner.