Combatting inertia

[sparkvark]

I sometimes think I must be the laziest person in the world. I overwhelm myself thinking about things that need to be done, and as a result I
never get started on any of them. I know that strictly speaking it’s not laziness, but it equates to the same result. It took me 2 hours to get out of bed this morning – I had to stop thinking about all the things, and just DO one thing.

I’ve hidden behind laziness for a long time. I’d rather be seen as lazy than as afraid or stressed. One is about being carefree, careless and chill. The other labels you as the weakest link, the one to be picked off first.

Right now I should be painting the apartment. Or at least prepping the walls. Or at least going to Bunnings to get some supplies. The only way I’m going to achieve that is to just stop thinking, hop on the bike and go. I know that, but I’m sitting here stressing myself out instead. My dad
will be visiting next weekend and will expect a certain amount of this stuff to be done. I’m not trying to get out of doing it, I’m not incapable of doing it, I’m just stuck in my own bloody head and it’s not a safe place in here.

I’ve agreed with myself that I’ll leave for the shops as soon as I post this. Even if I can’t face the bike and have to walk the whole way there one foot in front of the other.

How does everyone else tackle the inertia that sets in, whether it be from feeling overwhelmed, lack of energy, anxiety, depression, or anything?

[Zeal]

Hi sparkvark,

You are certainly not a lazy person. Feeling overwhelmed by racing thoughts due to anxiety and/or depression is frustrating. I have anxiety, and find that my thoughts make concentrating consistently difficult. Being afraid or stressed doesn't make you the weakest link. Laziness can be a habit and long-standing behaviour that almost becomes part of someone's personality, and clearly isn't positive. Being lazy doesn't necessarily equate to being relaxed and carefree though. Being anxious or stressed due to mental illness can and often is improved with professional help, which is best complemented with self-help and social support as well. Check-in with your doctor if you need help.

If you don't mind me asking, are you and your Dad close? Does he know about the stress you experience?

Hmm, how do I tackle inertia caused by my anxiety and feeling overwhelmed? I find that seemingly simple things like having a warm shower, washing my face, making my bed and being in comfy clothes helps. Walking around outside in the courtyard or sitting in the sun is nice, as is talking to my Mum when she's home. I come on the forum when I'm avoiding doing uni work actually. Rather than procrastinating by watching YouTube or something similar, I feel that posting here is helpful to others and therefore worthwhile. I also feel less guilty about not doing uni work haha.

Best wishes,

Zeal

[sparkvark]

Update: So I made it to Bunnings, but realised I'd left my bike lock at home and had to head back with nothing. That's what I get for doing things without thinking haha! Good use of an hour. Contemplating whether to try again or just call it a day. Anyone happen to have a spare caulking gun I could borrow?

[sparkvark]

Hi Zeal, thanks for your reply.

Luckily I’ve never experienced the ‘racing thoughts’ thing. My experience is more with what I’ll call ‘expanding thoughts’ where a single thought starts off at a reasonable size, then begins to grow and attract other thoughts/emotions through some sort of electromagnetic force until it takes up far more mental space than is warranted. I don’t consider it to be ‘snowballing’ because there’s no translational momentum to the thought, no thought progression. It just expands.

I’d still much rather be considered lazy than have someone know that I was afraid or stressed. I know that neither of them are positive, but laziness is just less of a weakness in my eyes.

I’m not particularly close with my dad in a sharing-emotions sense. Last time I let on I was stressed about something, the unhelpful suggestion was that I needed to toughen up and get on with it. I didn’t take it well and rage-quit from that discussion, and he later apologised but I’m not keen to have a repeat.

Simple things can sometimes make a substantial difference. I’m glad you’ve found some things that work for you Zeal. Haha that’s certainly a way to procrastinate while having a positive effect on others – I appreciate the
time you’ve taken to reply to me and hope it didn’t detract from too much of your uni work. I used to feel stressed at the mere mention of uni, so can completely understand the desire to procrastinate from it although regrettably I never really procrastinated in such a generous way.

[maxation]

Im worse..i dont even try to acheive anything.i dont talk to anyone.i dont go anywhere.i dont relate to anyone or anything anymore .

[sparkvark]

I'm sorry to hear that maxation, that sounds like a difficult spot to be in. Is there anything that you used to enjoy/want/imagine that you have even a sliver of interest in now? If there is, it's really important to fight for that thing even when that fight is against yourself. If there isn't, there's still a fight that you can win - you may just need some support to figure out where the battlefront is.

[Wendinsky]

I've tried a new approach to inertia and have stopped struggling. I just stay in bed until I feel I can get up. Sometimes I don't get up at all for two or three days, but I'm finding this better than fighting with myself and feeling ashamed of my depression. I'm 74 and feel very alone sometimes even though I have supportive friends. When my depression lifts I'm a cheerful and positive person but I've no idea were this blackness comes from. It descends, unexpectedly, and each time I feel it will never go away. It's exhausting. My cat keeps me relatively sane.

[Elizabeth CP]

One of the issues is feeling overwhelmed and trying to do the most important thing. This leads to wasting time deciding what is most important or trying to work out the best way to do something. I tried writing a list of things I wanted to get done. I broke up most of the things into doable sections. I then would give myself a set time (use an oven timer) & work on anything from the list. Then you can stop & do something else (including relaxing activities) & later do something else from the list. The aim is to give yourself the +ve boost from doing something rather than feeling bad about wasting time.

[sparkvark]

Thanks Wendinsky - it's good that you've found something that's working for you. Sorry to hear about the dark times. Do you have ways to remind yourself of the good stuff - your cat, friends, and your cheerfulness and positivity - to remind yourself that the blackness will indeed go away? You might want to check out the pets thread (in the same section as this one) to have a chat with fellow pet parents.

Cheers Elizabeth CP. I do often tend to get caught up in the idea that if I start something, I have to keep going until it's complete... Which rarely eventuates. Setting a time limit might be a good idea! 🙂 Sometimes I find visible to-do lists to be somewhat stressful to write, and "writing the list" may have to be its own activity haha.

[sparkvark]

I made a tiny bit of progress yesterday. Not enough before I caved, crying over nothing and who knows what.