24 Is Not Enough

[lydy]

The thing I find most inconvenient about depression, and which must be common to most handicaps, is that everything takes longer. Getting up in the morning, washing the bathroom, writing letters, paying bills, the time that it takes to do these things includes the time it takes to screw up my courage to do them.

I know, I sound like I'm whining. I'm really not. I'm commenting on one of the truths of my life. Depression manifests itself in different ways. For me, I become afraid of movement. I've sat on my couch for an hour, wanting to get up for a glass of water, but feeling that the immediate space in which I sat was a bubble of safety, and that it would burst if I moved, that the real world would rush in and drown me if the bubble burst. Cleaning things is so much worse than just getting something to drink, or even making dinner. Making choices about where this item and that item need to go is terrifying. My bedroom is difficult, but my office is almost impossible. I've learned that if I push myself past a certain point, I pay for it. I remember too many times sitting on my study floor, weeping and frozen, holding some completely unimportant item, unable to decide what to do with it. Eventually, I assume the aspect of a dull automaton, and finish the job. It's in that state that I most often throw out things that I regret later. I tend to do spurts of work and spend long intermissions playing cards on my computer or reading or watching my fish. The intermissions prevent the freezing, but it sure makes things take longer. I'm trying to teach myself not to feel guilty about taking long breaks because feeling guilty adds to the anxiety which reduces my total capability.

This is part of what it means to have a mood disorder.

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

This sounds oddly familiar. I don't react in exactly the same way, but I've been through periods of depression where it was a major accomplishment to do anything at all. I still have trouble being patient with myself when there are ten thousand things I want to do and the most I can manage is to read or to sit at a computer and play a simple game like MineSweeper. I accuse myself of being lazy at such times, but the prospect of doing anything more useful looms before me like the prospect of cliff-climbing with an elephant strapped to my back.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Sorta kinda, yeah. I don't process it as safe/dangerous, more, "Oh, what's the point?" I simply have no energy and no desire for anything which might create energy. I spent most of last week in bed with the covers over my heard. I got better of the weekend and promptly came down with a cold. The kitchen is a disaster are. There are roomsful of boxes yet to unpack. I can't find anything in the bedroom. And I spend all my time lying in bed or on the chaise, surfing the internet or reading murder mysteries. Murder mysteries are so comforting when I'm depressed. SF is too much work then.

More virtual hugs for ya.

MKK

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

The amotivation is all too familiar--but the anxiety component fascinates me. Is that anxiety more characteristic of bipolar depression than of regular depression? Do your meds address the anxiety? I have both depression and anxiety, and am medicated for both (Prozac and Lorezopam (sp?)), but they tend to alternate. The combination clearly is, yes, especially vicious.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

The amotivation is all too familiar--but the anxiety component fascinates me. Is that anxiety more characteristic of bipolar depression than of regular depression? Do your meds address the anxiety?

It could be an aspect of manic depression. It never occurred to me to ask. Manic depressives get what they call "mixed states", which is the charming experience of being manic and depressed at the same time. I've always assumed that's what the anxiety was all about. My meds don't address anxiety. Gods, I don't want _another_ drug. It's getting so even I am having trouble taking all my drugs at one go. (I'm very good at swallowing pills. It's one of my few skills. At night I take 5 horse pills, two normal-sized tablets, one small caplet, and one small tablet. I can take them all at one swallow. One of the few benefits of having been sick most of one's childhood.)

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Oh my, yes. Cleaning is the most dangerous time. Utter meltdown.

I rested for a *really* long time. It helped. Rest is good. Slows down the hamster wheel.

Decluttering is helping, too, but I'm having to get other people to work with me doing it. Cf., cleaning meltdown, above.