Feel Like I'm Having a Relapse

[Voice_Mail]

I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago, and have been improving a lot with the help of medication and regular psychologist appointments, but I recently feel like I'm slipping again. My biggest issue is motivation, and it has definitely been lacking lately. I've slowly stopped leaving the house except for work lately, and even going to work is getting more difficult. But at the same time, when I'm at home by myself I feel like I'm definitely the most vulnerable.

Does anyone have any tips about how to get motivated into doing things again? I know that going out with friends and exercising will make me feel better, but I just can't seem to get myself to do it... Advice, please? 😞

[Vegetarian Marshmallow]

Maybe you need a bootstrap system to get you motivated enough to go out and do the things that will make you motivated.  Start smaller.  Post those letters you were supposed to post.  Or do some housework, maybe.  FYI, it's much more fun with musical accompaniment.  Preferably use headphones so that you can end up with one of those disarming situations where someone comes into the room and sees you dancing around, oblivious to their presence.

[Mark_098]

I can't speak for you Voice_Mail, but this is what I do when I remember to:

I find sometimes or often (depending on how severe the symptoms are) that I wake up and sometimes it isn't long after that I'm aware that i'm already feeling low.  I am aware of negative thoughts of how I see myself, or of just being in a negative mood.

A friend told me that they say in the mirror (even as corny as it sounds, and it does sound corny) "I am such n such" and I am good at (find 1 thing you feel you are genuinely good at or that you are proud of, to do with yourself) and say that sentence until it makes you smile inside.  Sounds ridiculous but it works for me, well, when I'm kind enough to myself for the 15 minutes or so it takes after I walk away from the mirror to have it make maximum impact haha.  I don't do this most days and maybe I should but I find I do it a few times a week with reasonable results.

I also find that if i do it and then go for a short fast-ish pace walk (yes even if every fiber in me doesn't feel like it), as often as I can be bothered to, say every 2nd or 3rd day (15-20mins each way) before I start my day, I say it in my head a few times then also and it most of the time, I has had a good affect on my mood.  I won't lie, I didn't start to see any really positive lasting benefits, other than a momentarily better mood that didn't last (aside from weight loss) for at least, coming up to my third week. I used to listen to music when I walked but I found that depending on what was playing on shuffle could even affect my mood during my walk (and I don't think I listen to negative music). Walking without music is a great way to clear your head and put in it the things you want.

p.s I find the worse my mood, the faster I walk until that calmness appears that follows the exertion.      

Self affirmation is a great thing. Totally underrated.

Everyone is different and not everything works for everyone. It doesn't even always work for me, but it does sometimes...

I Hope this maybe helps you out a little.

[geoff]

hello, lack of motivation and depression are joined at the hip, so to speak.

What happened to me when I was in depression is that I also didn't want to do a damn thing, nothing except sleep, watch TV and drink alcohol, except for one thing, I had a friend close bye me or a stones throw away, and he called around everyday to get me out of the house, I certainly didn't want to go with him, but he encouraged me, or in fact told me to go with him.

Sometimes I would try and hide from him, but he always knew where I was, or I would say to him, 'I'm not interested, come back tomorrow', but he persevered, and said that by getting out of the house I would feel better.

I knew this deep down but never had the strength.

For you I would get a close friend or a work mate to do the same as what happened with me.

You need the stimulus from people who are close to you and you both can talk about anything, because you can't have any motivation by yourself, it needs to be encouraged by other people.

We may not want or like this to happen, and remember any plans that are made for in a month's time, it's alright in four weeks time, but as the time gets closer we start to think of excuses of why we can't do it, and on the actual day, we say 'we don't feel well enough to go, so go with out me I will OK'.

A common way of avoiding this activity from happening. Geoff.