How you overcome depression

[walfin]

How do you overcome a persistent feeling of dreading going to work and feeling demotivated to do anything, even things you used to like?

 

[Cognisant]

Get a gym membership, spend about 15min in the sun each day, try to eat more fresh food and less processed crap, look after you brain chemistry and you'll "feel" better which will make it easier to motivate yourself.

 

[Black Rose]

a really warm bath

 

[onesteptwostep]

Find things you like, make a routine. Change your scenery. Find things to be grateful for, and call up friends you haven't heard from in a while. There's a reason why our ancestors practiced rituals.

 

[peoplesuck]

How do you overcome a persistent feeling of dreading going to work and feeling demotivated to do anything, even things you used to like?

Maybe you should ask yourself if there is a reason not to dread going to your job.

You didnt give us any information, we dont have any idea of what to suggest, because we dont know what is making you feel this way.
By not explaining your situation, it makes me think that you havent put any thought into it, yourself.
Environmental depression: fix your life, figure out what matters to you, and stop fucking about.
biological: drugs, cold showers, electric shock therapy.
It really isnt complicated at all, it only seems complicated when you try to avoid the actual cause and find some generalizing bandaid.
You need the actual coordinates to the problem, otherwise you cant really fucking destroy it.

 

[walfin]

Maybe you should ask yourself if there is a reason not to dread going to your job.

You didnt give us any information, we dont have any idea of what to suggest, because we dont know what is making you feel this way.
By not explaining your situation, it makes me think that you havent put any thought into it, yourself.
Environmental depression: fix your life, figure out what matters to you, and stop fucking about.
biological: drugs, cold showers, electric shock therapy.
It really isnt complicated at all, it only seems complicated when you try to avoid the actual cause and find some generalizing bandaid.
You need the actual coordinates to the problem, otherwise you cant really fucking destroy it.

I used to not dread going to work. I used to be able to go through with the daily routine just fine.

I've tried various things. I just went to a dinner with friends and it was OK but I still didn't feel motivated after that.

It's like there's just this funk I've fallen into and I don't know why it's so difficult to climb out of it.

 

[peoplesuck]

Do you have friends at work? Do you find your work meaningful? did you ever enjoy your work? Has anything in your life changed since?

 

[walfin]

Do you have friends at work? Do you find your work meaningful? did you ever enjoy your work? Has anything in your life changed since?

Yes, I have friends at work. I used to find my work meaningful. I used to do pro bono cases which I found meaningful but currently I'm not even taking on a single pro bono case as I feel demotivated and disinterested in my work.

I'm not sure what changed in my life, I've taken meds, taken a break from work, went to meet friends, went out for activities etc. It's getting better but nothing seems to snap me out of it. Maybe it just takes time.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

sometimes one just gradually deviates from a path, it's sort of happened to me now over the last year or so. I've become quite lazy, stimulus-based, forgot a lot of my old principles that guided me in the past. I don't think there has to be a specific reason for it, one just sort of gradually acquires bad thought patterns and habits

... which was something one of my principles predicted, ironically, which said that if one doesn't actively maintain oneself, one will eventually become a mushy, sloppy piece of sand dollar.

... but also, I guess as one gets older, it becomes harder to get inspired by cheap inspiration. one has to build purpose and meaning in a deeper way.

 

[sushi]

workout and go outside.

 

[Minuend]

I used to not dread going to work. I used to be able to go through with the daily routine just fine.

I've tried various things. I just went to a dinner with friends and it was OK but I still didn't feel motivated after that.

It's like there's just this funk I've fallen into and I don't know why it's so difficult to climb out of it.

Your feelings/ thoughts have changed which means your perspective also needs to change. Going out for dinner doesn't address the issue or help process your feelings. You might also have a tendency to push thoughts/ feelings aside if you don't find merit in them, or think they are silly, trivial or similar. Which is counterproductive, because then you risk them festering to where you feel constant dread. So the trick is to acknowledge what you feel down about, maybe finding a way to live with it, change it or so, or just acknowledge yeah that's shitty but there's nothing I can do about it and at least -insert some helpful thing that came out it-. Then maybe just acknowledge you'll feel shit for a couple of days, but it will pass

Not being able to process them and let them kinda pass through you risk making them fester. Thinking about them too much might make you too focused on them and unable to let go. It can be tricky learning this process, but you become more resilient to shitty things that happen when you have.

So I guess some thought, something someone said, something that happened or so, triggered these feelings where you don't feel what you're doing is "enough" anymore. Or something to that effect. So you might need to think about what life you want if you could choose freely, how it would be different from your current one, what options are realistic and what you have to accept might just be shitty but sometimes that's part of life. Maybe you don't feel appreciated by your coworkers, maybe you feel nobody gets you, maybe you feel your work isn't meaningful, maybe you feel you're not at the point in life you imagined you would, maybe there are some goals you wanted to achieve that are nowhere in sight. Etc. Or it could be something entirely unrelated, maybe your dread was triggered by some family feud, a breakup, loneliness, a hurtful comment from someone etc. And that carried over to your feelings about life in general.

There is some baseline conclusion in there somewhere, that tells you what you're really feeling/ thinking and why it makes you down, it can just be tricky to identify as might've pushed it aside and have made it more difficult to recognize the source. Even if you rationally think it's trivial and nothing to get upset about, can fester if not processed. We're humans and sometimes small things upset us even if it's silly. Being human is about being able to recognize that, accept it and being able to process and let go of it.

Now, of course, your issue might not even be silly. I'm just mentioning this because I've seen a lot of people who develop that kind of dread because they are not recognizing their feelings when they find them silly or small, and thus they fester and sometimes grow into a big issue, depression even.

 

[Happy]

How do you overcome a persistent feeling of dreading going to work and feeling demotivated to do anything, even things you used to like?

Stop persevering and change direction.
Start here, maybe?

 

[walfin]

Your feelings/ thoughts have changed which means your perspective also needs to change. Going out for dinner doesn't address the issue or help process your feelings. You might also have a tendency to push thoughts/ feelings aside if you don't find merit in them, or think they are silly, trivial or similar. Which is counterproductive, because then you risk them festering to where you feel constant dread. So the trick is to acknowledge what you feel down about, maybe finding a way to live with it, change it or so, or just acknowledge yeah that's shitty but there's nothing I can do about it and at least -insert some helpful thing that came out it-. Then maybe just acknowledge you'll feel shit for a couple of days, but it will pass

Not being able to process them and let them kinda pass through you risk making them fester. Thinking about them too much might make you too focused on them and unable to let go. It can be tricky learning this process, but you become more resilient to shitty things that happen when you have.

So I guess some thought, something someone said, something that happened or so, triggered these feelings where you don't feel what you're doing is "enough" anymore. Or something to that effect. So you might need to think about what life you want if you could choose freely, how it would be different from your current one, what options are realistic and what you have to accept might just be shitty but sometimes that's part of life. Maybe you don't feel appreciated by your coworkers, maybe you feel nobody gets you, maybe you feel your work isn't meaningful, maybe you feel you're not at the point in life you imagined you would, maybe there are some goals you wanted to achieve that are nowhere in sight. Etc. Or it could be something entirely unrelated, maybe your dread was triggered by some family feud, a breakup, loneliness, a hurtful comment from someone etc. And that carried over to your feelings about life in general.

There is some baseline conclusion in there somewhere, that tells you what you're really feeling/ thinking and why it makes you down, it can just be tricky to identify as might've pushed it aside and have made it more difficult to recognize the source. Even if you rationally think it's trivial and nothing to get upset about, can fester if not processed. We're humans and sometimes small things upset us even if it's silly. Being human is about being able to recognize that, accept it and being able to process and let go of it.

Now, of course, your issue might not even be silly. I'm just mentioning this because I've seen a lot of people who develop that kind of dread because they are not recognizing their feelings when they find them silly or small, and thus they fester and sometimes grow into a big issue, depression even.

Yeah it's difficult to identify what caused it since there was no readily apparent cause apart from the work itself (I had suddenly developed a fear of missing urgent deadlines - which is of course stupid because I don't think there's any job which has no deadlines at all). Several people told me that I was probably just burnt out and it was not surprising for my industry.

I thought it would be better after taking a break. It is slightly better as I have managed to survive a month at work just living day by day and taking 1 step at a time. However, I believe this is not sustainable in the long run as this job (like many others) requires long-term strategising and not just doing the bare minimum to get by.

Stop persevering and change direction.
Start here, maybe?

I wanted to change direction but I couldn't find a job in a different industry (try as I might, despite the fact that I have some alternative qualifications as well).

I was actually headhunted for another job (in the same industry) and I turned the offer down as I felt bad leaving my boss just after having taken a somewhat long break. Now I'm wondering if I made the wrong decision.

 

[Elen]

Perhaps you are avoiding an "impossible" task. When I start to get sucked into depression it is often because there is something (often simple) that I am avoiding doing. It could even be something that only takes 10 minutes to handle but for whatever reason it feels impossible.

Perhaps identify that and resolve it. You'll feel lighter and feel less dread.

 

[Rebis]

If you've been through the loop of losing meaning and subsequently regaining it after a period of exploration, you know what you have to do. Grand meaning is frail; this is a manufactured world that has been stripped of meaningful competition for resources where life and death are on stake. Try out new things: Are you interested in sci-fi? Go through rotten tomatoes list of the top 100 sci-fi movies. I done this yesterday, it's one sci-fi movie a day.

List of activities I've done to reinvent my hobbies:
-Programming a lot since I went back to college, I've been through 200 programming exercises.
-Playing board games with nerds in my local Gaming society. It's been fun besides an autist calling me a cunt when I tried to explain the limitations of a rule in the boardgame "Munchkins".
- Working out a bit more, I'm going to the gym with my flatmate alot recent. I talk about ideas she talks about people. She's attractive so I get a bit of motivation to perform better with her beside me: it sounds silly but why not, eh?
- Went to a debating society with the girl recently, the topic was "Abolish retributive judgement".
-Since I had been doing the sober life I went on a pretty fun bender. In terms of experience, psychoactive substances are clearly second to none and changing your perception of the world is clearly going to throw away any concept of depression. In a way consuming some drugs induces a flow state: the mind-bending qualities of a psycho-active substance give you an entirely different conception of space, time and the self. When we're unfamiliar with our surroundings we tend to concentrate more on what's happening. Depression can occur from a lack of stimulation in most cases: Intellectual, emotional, physical or sexual stimulation. Pick your vitalic elixir.

in most cases I don't see the problem as long as you're not taking them frequently, you see it as an experience rather than a way to "get fucked up". I honestly think the bender was fantastic, I may've had the best bender of all time.
Have you been doing too much hobbyist programming? Maybe explore a different area of Computer science you're not accustomed to. Look for something you lack. In the pursuit of acquiring that which you lack you will feel satisfied.

Everything what others said are good pointers too. Ultimately they're all derivatives of one goal: to set goals and work towards them. Ask yourself what you lack, what you would like to try and set that as your goal. I honestly think most depression is cured through self-improvement. If you stay the same person for too long you will become depressed, if you keep reinventing yourself depression will have catching up to do.

 

[walfin]

I'm feeling better now, it comes and goes. Those mood swings are a bummer.

 

[dragula]

Activities, talking with people, Music, everything to put my mind at ease and my heart at rest. And reading.

 

[walfin]

I've been feeling very very sleepy at night and in the early mornings recently despite sleeping more.

But my mood has improved; perhaps sleep is helping.

 

[sushi]

identify core beliefs that made you pessimistic, depressed and hopeless

some of them are wrong and irrational, i found out through experimentation and verification in real life

write a journal or talk to a therapist.

 

[walfin]

Feeling frustrated, argggggghh!

That made me feel better.

 

[Ex-User (15237)]

Get your sleep wake cycle on track , dont hesitate to throw things you used to like into the garbage.
clean your environment so you dont have things to make you feel guilty.

if you are not able to think for yourself then read on stoicism and adapt it in your life.
stop giving a fuk about depression.

dont bother yourself with it, be rational and endure the pain
it will be a blessing if you could be depressed and not give a fuck because at some point everyone will have to pass that road
through depression, old age or whenever

i believe next stage of evolution happens through depression, you have to know some things like no one knows better , we all have no idea whats going on, dont believe in anything and the possibilities will become endless
Love your experience not the lives that we live.

have a journal and start to write when you feel overwhelmed, finish it and then have the wisdom to throw it in the bin.
If you have decided to live then why not just stop giving a fuk

if it becomes too painful then i think you need to give your brain some pills thats all there is.
stop being romantic about life until you have mastered to yourself

those feelings you have might not go but when you endure with them you dont even realize they are even there and when that happiness then you have unlocked something new inside you and you become invincible to the environment around you

You need a friend as this was the advice given to me 2 years back on this forum and i took it made friends with myself

Just keep pushing and know that there are no dark or white clouds.
upgrade your psyche

even if you get out depression from your mind you will not like it there because the world will be too shiny and you will see that most of them are asleep so just be aware and sleepwalk like you are lucid dreaming.
No one will harm you
even the truly awake are in a trance, we are told that that is the picture that we want in front of our eyes but truly no one has the correct picture of reality so you could say that no one is truly awake either you are sleepwalking or lucid dreaming.

I think this might start a chain reaction ( all the parts )

one last thing
if you have time to think and contemplate then you are good to go
" Go into the depths endure the pain like a coal would, get those cuts and pains and then you will shine like a diamond but you will be your own diamond dont let others put value on you or any names and tags, get rid of them all, they enslave us, you dont know who you are and thats the truth you are looking for no one has found it but be wise and you will be able to light your path in dark "

Feed yourself logic and your emotions fuel to fuel logic

We all have different ways of seeing things but the thing remains same.
be like a optimization process and not this shit human thing we are told to see we are its all like religion beneath all religions we know they are also those we made but dont know they exist