courage

You know, sometimes it does take courage to get out of bed, or to go out for a workout, or to face the tasks ahead of you that you need to accomplish, whatever they be, be they big or small. We have to muster up the courage to do these things. Maybe I never really knew before how difficult some of these little things can be to just do on your own when you're struggling to make it through the day. Maybe I always took these kinds of things for granted, took my own self-worth, my own courage, my own strength for granted.

How do some of you manage to find your own strength to do the things, whatever they are, that are sometimes difficult to do? Would you call this courage? Do we give ourselves enough credit for the courageous things that we do, whatever challenges we are going through?

I guess it depends on what the task is. Sometimes I hate to get out of bed, but I know I have to cause I have class. There is a lot of challenges it seems like during the day, as a lot needs to be done. I feel self-hatred many times which impairs me from getting things done. I know once I have completed something that has been bugging me, I feel a lot better though. I think strength is a good word though.

Yes, I'd definitely call it courage. It's so hard to do "ordinary" things when you're not ok...

"depressives are great strugglers, but for their struggles they get little reward". Quotation form a book, I agree with it: when a person heavily depressed manages to get on his feet, wash, dress up and walk out, he/she should find a clapping crowd on the sidewalk!

Sometimes it can take all day for me to get up the strength to get out of bed and get dressed. I can have a shower and by the time I'm done I have to sit down and rest because it was so draining. So I think it's definitely a show of strength to stand up to the depression and do these things despite the lack of energy or motivation to do it. Personally, there are a lot of days where I have to bribe myself to do anything. I keep a lot of my favourite foods on hand -- "if you get out of bed you can go to the kitchen and get some popcorn!" -- or "if you go to class now you'll have time to stop on the way for a coffee to bring in with you, which will really help you get through it!" The little things are the biggest comfort sometimes.

I think depressives tend to lose a lot of their "oomph", which other people probably take for granted. Facing the world without whatever it is that keeps everyone else going is incredibly difficult and I think we all deserve a reward for doing it.

I try to keep going even when I feel like I have no energy. It can be hard. I think it is even harder for me when my brain dies. Part of what keeps me going is my perfectionism. It reminds me that there will be a time when I don't feel this way and that I have to keep going or I might detrimentally destroy something that there will be no way to get back again. When my perfectionism goes away is when I really loose it and find myself dropping things that I should be doing and every day becomes a chore. What I hate is when I finally have a little energy to do something and I can't get it done. (For example I called to try and change car insurance and they told me to call back closer to the day I actually want it changed!) I wish that when I finally had energy to do things others would be available.