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SprinkL3
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Member Since: Oct 2021
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Default Oct 22, 2021 at 10:02 PM
 
What is causing you to not feel motivated to get out of bed, etc.?

If it's insomnia or a different sleep-wake disorder of some kind, tell your primary care, your T, your pdoc, or some sleep specialist. They can see what else might be going on with your sleep to make it less refreshing in the morning. Sometimes it's from depression, sometimes it's from sleep apnea, sometimes it's from a kind of med you're on, sometimes it's from your swing shift jobs, sometimes its from not having any purpose in your life (such as no job, no school, no volunteer work), sometimes it's from the start of anhedonia (not being able to feel pleasure, which can be connected with depression or major depression), sometimes it's due to stresses in your life, sometimes it's due to this pandemic and not being able to function socially the way you used to, and sometimes it's due to some medical reason (such as chronic fatigue syndrome). Start with your treatment team first to rule some things out and inquire about some other things.

If your sleep is fine, but you're feeling depressed upon waking, then you can rule out a sleep-wake disorder. You could instead look at what's changed in your life to where you feel less motivated, or less purposeful. When people lack purpose - like a job title, a communal purpose within the neighborhood or an institution, or a relational connection that is reciprocal (meaning the give-and-take in those relationships are nearly equal or beneficial in some way if not equal) - depression can set in when there's no reason (or purpose) for waking. We then have to create a new purpose when our old purposes have been taken away, lost, or disappeared. To find purpose, you have to figure out what gives you pleasure in life - particularly in the mornings, and what you look forward to doing each and every day. For me, I'm isolated and severely lonely, so I lack purpose. Thankfully, I still have the ability to feel some pleasure (not much), despite my chronic fatigue syndrome. So what I do is find things that give me pleasure and purpose in the morning, such as checking my email, watching a favorite show, or updating my Excel spreadsheet (which contains my bank balances, my incoming packages that I have yet to retrieve downstairs, and a list of to-do items for the day or the week). I can't overdo it, lest I burn out or tire out with CFS/ME. But I try to find something pleasurable each day. When I was utterly alone at the beginning of the pandemic, all I had was my therapist. That was it. I was depressed, and I called the crisis line every day. I had nothing pleasurable; everything was an impending threat on my life for the first 4 months. My therapist helped me feel safe with her, and she helped me with resources to call like the crisis line and the vet center - every day if needed - just to feel alive again. I have been living isolated within my apartment for 19 months now. I've not socialized outside at all - only online. This was one of the hardest times ever. I was suicidal all the time, and I had to make a reasons-to-live list so that I didn't go off the deep end. My list of reasons to live was short, but enough to keep me alive. Things got a little better, but I still struggle with finding purpose and meaning in my life. I still get depressed and suicidal from time to time. I'm still isolated and alone.

But if you don't have as many limitations, perhaps you can find a new purpose. It takes hard work to do that, as well as energy you may not immediately have. However, when you find purpose, you might find your energy and spirits lifting. It works for some, not for all.

Hope these tips help.

Make a list and write down possible things that bring you pleasure and purpose in the morning. Try seeing about scheduling some of those in the morning.
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Thanks for this!
*Beth*