can anyone suggest what they do to help?

[Lily_28_]

Hi all,

          So I suffer both anxiety and depression, and was wondering what tips can you give me to just help get through the day or even as soon as I wake up for everyday I feel great anxiety to the point I do not want to get out of bed and face the day.

I've been told numerous times that meditation works but I honestly just struggle with the concept as I feel more anxious and/or depressed while attempting it. (Obviously have no idea how to do it properly)

Exercise makes me feel better, but I am wondering what do people do to get that motivation to get out of bed and live the day for that is what I struggle with?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thankyou 🙂

[Neil_1]

Hi Lily

Welcome to Beyond Blue & thank you for coming here & providing your post.

The question you’ve put forward is one that troubles so many of us.  Your thinking and your feelings with this, you are definitely not alone.   Now please bear with me below, because some of the stuff I’ll be writing could be construed as so basic and common sense, you might think, “what the hell is this guy all about” – and if you do, that’s cool.  But it’s just a number of strategies that I have employed over my time to assist me.

Also “thank you” for suggesting this question at this time – and not a few months ago – cause for me, struggling with the effort to get out of bed when it’s either cold and rainy outside, or just cold, is damn TOUGH to extract yourself away from the warmth of your bed.

With spring here and temps rising each day – it is making it that much more bearable to get up – for the sake of temperature in the first instance.

Now, not sure if you work – or have certain places to be during each day – but if you do, then these are also common factors that can assist us with getting up and mobile. 

Before you go to bed, set out your clothes that you’ll be wearing the next day.  ALL of them, have them nicely ready.

Set an alarm – and there’s two ways to deal with this.

1st option is to have it next to you and DON’T hit the snooze – when it goes off, get up.

2nd option is to have it a distance away from you and have it loud so it’ll get annoying.  So then, you HAVE to get up to turn it off.  Then hey presto, you’re up and out of bed.

Set yourself with a routine and STICK to it as much as you can.

So next objective is to have a shower.  Lather up, shower it off, rinse and all that – scrub away – scrub away some of the demons from your body, so that when you come out of the shower, you’ll not only feel clean and fresh, but also hopefully with a kind of energy boost to now take the next step.

By this time, yes, time to apply the clothes that you’ve set out for yourself – then do all the jazzing up with make-up etc (ok ok, this part ISN’T part of my routine – and you’re going to have to believe me on that! 🙂

Breakfast is always a key thing for me as well.

Lily, there’s my step by step guide in early morning routine.  It may not work for you, but just thought I’d put it out there for you.

Would love to hear back from you on this.

Neil

[gremz]

Love the clothes idea Neil, maybe setting up what you'll have for breakfast would be cool too (at least for me, i struggle with decisions :P)

And shower is always my favourite part of the day 🙂

But I have had the problem where I can now sleep through my alarm, its so much easier to stay in bed than to deal with another day. I have been thinking about trying a new nice song to wake me up, so maybe I will be in an excited good mood to get out of bed.

I'll let you know how it goes, and if anyone has any more tips PLEASE let me know. Me and mornings HATE each other.