How do you do it when you're so depressed?

[Man with no name]

I regularly see posts saying to use different techniques to help their depression. Things like:

Relaxing music, breathing, exercise, exercise, sleep, diet etc.

How on earth do you do any of this when you are depressed? I certainly can't. I can't sleep properly, can't exercise, I listen to loud music and eat junk. The last thing I feel I can do it the above recommendations.

How do you do it?

Thanks

[white knight]

Hi and welcome

Sometimes I compare my depression with my arthritis. Good days and not good days. This means you need to wait for the better days to commence some recovery techniques.

Google- Beyondblue forums Depression and the timing of motivation

Google- Beyondblue forums Depression, distraction and variety

The good news is, that over many years you a/ live with depression as if it is part of your DNA and B/ you can almost predict a down period.

There is also positives with depression.

Google- Beyondblue forums depression, is there any positive

Diet of course is important however, I know what lack of motivation is like. Try to make an attempt to include some good food in one meal a day. Packaged salads is as easy to open and dump on a plate as junk food. Walking 100 metres away is a 200 metre walk. Sound silly? Well years ago I said to myself "I can walk 5kms...so I did, then had to force myself to walk the other 5 back home making it 10kms.

I hope the links give you some guidance.

TonyWK

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Man with no name,

Thanks for your post.

How do I do it? Good question! It's definitely made me think.

I think for me I just start, but I start small. The idea of feeling better and not being so damn depressed has to outweigh how I feel. I have to really really want to get better - because if I have no incentive it's going to make it so much harder to take any step.

Have you ever heard of microactions? That's been a big help for me. Basically an action on a very small scale that feels do-able. If you're eating junk right now, telling yourself you're going to start this new eating plan is not realistic. But you could eat an apple. It's small. It might even sound silly. But it's a microaction; a step forward, and a bit of momentum.

Maybe with exercise, find something small too. Maybe it's just a few extra steps there, or just 5 squats at home - whatever floats your boat that seems achievable.

Telling yourself to do all the things is understandably overwhelming, but if you can find one thing that's small and doable for you right now it can be so powerful.

Hope this is helpful,

[future_]

This is the exact reason why I am asking to actually meet people with simular issues and spend time talking, walking having coffee with or going to the movies with. Every knows that spending time with people is good therapy. Listening to music or exercising on your own is just compounding the problem. Please live in hope someone will eventually try my idea please. xoxo