[annoyedgrunt84]

I don't know if I just am lazy or am depressed. I just never feel like doing anything and having anything to do makes me feel so stressed out. I mean the littlest things, like needing to walk two blocks down to the post office and Mail off a bill seems really stressful. On the other hand I'm doing well with exercise spending an 1-1.5 hours swimming/running. Maybe I just don't like work because I always feel so pressed for time and the pressure of knowing so many people are depending on me is too much?

[vital]

Originally Posted by annoyedgrunt84

I don't know if I just am lazy or am depressed. I just never feel like doing anything and having anything to do makes me feel so stressed out. I mean the littlest things, like needing to walk two blocks down to the post office and Mail off a bill seems really stressful. On the other hand I'm doing well with exercise spending an 1-1.5 hours swimming/running. Maybe I just don't like work because I always feel so pressed for time and the pressure of knowing so many people are depending on me is too much?

1-1.5 hours a day swimming or running is great!

I'm really pretty sure that what you describe above is depression, not laziness. I think I know how this works in detail.

- vital

[Clara22]

Hi,
I found this useful Depression Myths and Facts Demystified | Psych Central

[Chib]

What you are describing sounds like depression to me.

[Ocean5]

I use to exercise for hours a day. At same time told I had major depression (which I already knew.)

stressed to do things or anxious?

I don't believe a lazy person would experience anxiety about doing something. Also, consider this. Depression is about not feeling you or doing something is worthwhile. It is about a lack of hope. Depression is not about a lack of motivation. It's about being unable to do it.

Sure a depressed person might look for an excuse to avoid something but it is for reasons of anxiety not about of lack of wanting to do it. Often the Depressed person DOES want to do it but can't bring themselves to do so. I think too a depressed person is more likely to 'beat themselves up' for not engaging themself in the task.

Does any of this sound familiar?

[vonmoxie]

I hate the word "lazy." In a sense, I don't even think it's a real thing.

If we're unmotivated, there is a reason. Saying that a person is lazy, others or ourselves, doesn't address any reasons at all, and suggests that it's not even just a temporary state of mind but a personal characteristic. My parents always said I was lazy, but what child is unmotivated without cause? I wish I had a tenth of the energy now that I had then, even in the malaise I found myself in as a result of their awful parenting.

Originally Posted by annoyedgrunt84

I don't know if I just am lazy or am depressed. I just never feel like doing anything and having anything to do makes me feel so stressed out. I mean the littlest things, like needing to walk two blocks down to the post office and Mail off a bill seems really stressful. On the other hand I'm doing well with exercise spending an 1-1.5 hours swimming/running. Maybe I just don't like work because I always feel so pressed for time and the pressure of knowing so many people are depending on me is too much?

My own experience with depression and lack of motivation suggests that each of us has a complex relationship with motivation which must be addressed in the ways that work for us individually.

What you say about why you don't like work sound like they are insights you have found to be valid for you. Maybe further examine how you can work with those insights to enable yourself to enjoy work sometime in the future, in an occupation that works best for you? Rather than take on the lousy "lazy" as an attribute. Me personally, I've had to accept that corporate work is just not for me, however lucrative; I'm perfectly happy making less money in a less stressful occupation, living in my tiny apartment and forgoing expensive purchases. There's no amount of money that can make receiving a thousand emails in a day that all have to be answered within a 24-hour period worth the pain that comes with it for me. I'd much rather live

on less money. My family might not like my being as unambitious as they perceive me to be, but it's really none of their business the person I choose to be.

[annoyedgrunt84]

I really understand how maladaptive many of the thoughts in my head are, but I just can't get them to go away most of the time.