I just dabbled in skating for the fun of it growing up.....my mom didn't drive & the ice skating rink that was only a few blocks from my house closed when I was really young & my mom had no way of driving me to where the closest rink was.....so SOL. In college they had in ice skating group class for PE which I took along with my equitation classes for several years. I enjoyed learning a little more ice skating than just forward & backward.....got a couple of turns learned....but could never do any jumping.....didn't do horse jumping either....like all feet on the ground at all times (except when falling).

I enjoyed skating on days we didn't skii in Jackson Hole Wyo.....they watered over the tennis courts for the winter & they became the skating rink for the city.....that was fun in the out doors & it was close to our condo....couldn't ask for more...but the ice did get ruff with no Zamboni to scrape it once in awhile.

I gave our daughter skating lessons while she was growing up (you know that thing about I didn't do it so I will let my daughter if she's interested). She did great.....but NO COMPETITION. She didn't have a competitive bone in her body like her MOM did......but that's ok....she decided that she wanted to learn gymnastics & did that until they started pushing them into competitions also.

Had a friend's wife I worked with.....& our 2 families were close as they had a son our daughter's age & we went down hill skiing with them on long weekends......his wife used to do a lot of skating & really enjoyed it...but after marriage, he didn't like her going skating at the rink all the time....it created a bit of a war....but guess she ended up giving it up at that point.

I absolutely LOVE ice dancing.....but then I love ballroom dancing in the first place. I like watching the individuals.....but IMO....ice dancing is the ultimate form of beauty in ice skating.

I haven't had a TV for 7 years....but I love...all the good stuff is to be found on YouTube anyway.....so I don't end up loosing out because of having NO TV......I'm not in the dark like it was in the past without TV.

So what kind of ice skating do you do......how much time to you really spend practicing each day. Does your ice skating help your depression? I know when I was actively doing my dressage riding & showing, I didn't have the time to deal with the depression....but it was still bad & there were times the depression did get in the way of my ability to function.