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I don’t think I was severely depressed at the time, and your note about “just do it” seems valid. I once called EAP (employee assistance program) to ask for hel
by meristohm 5y ago
I don’t think I was severely depressed at the time, and your note about “just do it” seems valid. I once called EAP (employee assistance program) to ask for help reading email. Their advice, which I now practice: break down the process into discrete steps, with self-care in between.
For example: 1. Acknowledge I want to open this email. 2. Turn away and breathe deeply for ten breaths. 3. Turn back and click. 4. Turn away and breathe, do push-ups, whatever your temporary escape is that Diane take you completely out of the process.
Cold showers help build the confidence to do things I will otherwise avoid for longer than is healthy. The act of stepping in and minimizing thought as I turn the handle means sometimes I’m already gasping before I have time to dither, and the suffocating blanket of fear has dissolved.
- aeortiz 5y agocold, and showers...both are anathema when I'm depressed
- meristohm 5y agoSmall, cheap, habitual actions are what work. I Crawl Through It by A.S. King refined the advice from my mom to “just do something!” when I was depressed as a teenager. I could only imagine big, daunting things to do rather than the tiny steps that are more effective. Steps to build the habit of opting in to temporary cold might be one hand in a bowl of cold water every morning, then the face, then turning off the hot water before the cold water in the shower, etc. Breath-holding to increase carbon dioxide can be another helpful system shock, spurring a will to live. To get up in the morning when I’m feeling stuck I’ll start breathing quickly and deeply to increase the chances I can bypass the sinkhole of my thoughts and find myself sitting up. [0] https://www.worldcat.org/title/i-crawl-through-it-a-novel/ https://www.worldcat.org/title/i-crawl-through-it-a-novel/ [1] https://www.worldcat.org/title/breath/oclc/1249567607&referer=brief_results https://www.worldcat.org/title/breath/oclc/1249567607&refere...