[bewise93]

I made a day schedule for my weekdays since I am on disability. I am trying to force myself to stick to some of the schedule and I feel its helping with depression. For example, I have at a certain time exercise 5 min, another time meditate 5 min, another time read 10 min, so on and so forth. It's helping me feel better too, to feel like I accomplished something. I also hope to stick to the schedule for a couple more days and see how I feel.

Sounds like a good plan! Structure can really help with stability, I know it does for me. Not fool-proof of course, but it does help. Heh, I should add some good practices (like meditation maybe, getting out for fun, not just errands, and better food prep habits -- they are terrible), but so much of the time I feel like I'm maxed out, energy-wise at least.

Good luck with your schedule.

[Blueberrybook]

Good luck and do what works best for you and don't beat yourself up if you don't stick to it. I tend to be an all or nothing type of person. I do like structure in many aspects of my life, but sometimes, it makes me inflexible too. Like I get disconcerted if I have to schedule an appointment in the afternoon and not the morning. Or I get anxious and snappy if my daughter has something to go to for school in the evening, and our normal after school routine is off or I feel rushed. Or, if I plan to exercise 45 minutes and only do 30 minutes, I feel like a complete failure. Even, ridiculously, I would feel like I'd failed if I stopped at 44 minutes. Sigh. In that aspect of my life, I'm a perfectionist. In other areas, like keeping house, I hate, and I'm sloppy at it. Give yourself structure with some leeway now and again.

But I do agree it is best to do SOMETHING, anything when you are depressed, especially getting out of bed. Better too if you can manage to do something productive, but some days I succeed more at that than others. I hope you find it helps you.

[AspiringAuthor]

There is a book about it which I highly recommend:

Treating Bipolar Disorder: A Clinician's Guide to Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (Guides to Individualized Evidence-Based Treatment)

https://www.amazon.com/Treating-Bipo.../dp/159385465X

[Pookyl]

A schedule I’ve found works really well if your mood is elevated also.
I used to run the schedule by my psychologist, who would then give me feedback e.g. if it looked too full.

[bewise93]

Originally Posted by cln1812

Good luck and do what works best for you and don't beat yourself up if you don't stick to it. I tend to be an all or nothing type of person. I do like structure in many aspects of my life, but sometimes, it makes me inflexible too. Like I get disconcerted if I have to schedule an appointment in the afternoon and not the morning. Or I get anxious and snappy if my daughter has something to go to for school in the evening, and our normal after school routine is off or I feel rushed. Or, if I plan to exercise 45 minutes and only do 30 minutes, I feel like a complete failure. Even, ridiculously, I would feel like I'd failed if I stopped at 44 minutes. Sigh. In that aspect of my life, I'm a perfectionist. In other areas, like keeping house, I hate, and I'm sloppy at it. Give yourself structure with some leeway now and again.

But I do agree it is best to do SOMETHING, anything when you are depressed, especially getting out of bed. Better too if you can manage to do something productive, but some days I succeed more at that than others. I hope you find it helps you.

I agree with you. I didn't do everything on my schedule but I did the morning stuff, and that made me happy. I skipped afternoon and evening but it's better I exercised, showered, brushed teeth, and meditated yesterday morning than nothing at all.