[Rose76]

Mornings are the hardest. No matter how decent I get to feeling during the day, I wake up every morning feeling lousy. I feel stiff and sore physically when I first wake up. And I feel vaguely depressed. This is every morning. It can take hours to ease up, but it usually does. Later in the day, I can feel alright. But every morning it's a battle.

I don't think I'm unique in having morning be the worst time of the day for me. So I'ld be interested in hearing if others have this problem.

This morning was even harder than usual. It's now after 2 p.m. and I'm still not out of the morning funk.

I've thought about asking my doctor for a stimulant to take in the morning. But I don't think he will approve of that. In the past I didn't find Ritalin that helpful.

Today is just awful. I can't seem to get out of it. Even if I do, tomorrow morning will start it over again.

[avlady]

OMG this is one of my worst things that happens to me. its awful and i feel for you!!!I would also like to hear from others who suffers so.

Rose76, I get out of bed, go to the bathroom, get the coffee going, then take a hot shower. I get out, pour my coffee, have my breakfast, sit and take my time eating it. Then i lounge around with another cup until i wake up. A radio going with the news for the day or some nice music helps tremendously. I hope this helps. Blessings.

[avlady]

Thank you, i do just about the same things but it sometimes takes me 5 cups of coffee and i feel guilty just doing almost nothing as i am useless in the morning.

[*Laurie*]

Mornings...UGH. I awaken too early feeling panicky and depressed. Every morning. I am sooo worn down from it.

[Skeezyks]

I pray for death every morning in the shower...

[Rose76]

Originally Posted by avlady

OMG this is one of my worst things that happens to me. its awful and i feel for you!!!I would also like to hear from others who suffers so.

Thank you, avlady. This is the great thing about peer support - the feeling I get that you know what I'm talking about. Actually, I wish you didn't. But you do, and I'm grateful to you for understanding. "One of the worst things" is no exaggeration.

My sig. other wakes up every single morning wanting to get up . . . and he is a man in poor health. It would be torture for him to try and stay in bed, once he is awake. I'm not lazier than he is. But I suffer from chronically, recurring depression. He doesn't, despite a great many other problems, including a history of severe alcohol abuse, which is long behind him now. He tells me that, even when he was homeless from alcohol abuse, he never really got depressed. I believe him. That's how he is, even now, in the face of deteriorating health. He tells me, "I think it's something you do to yourself." I accept that he has no conception of what it is to constantly (almost) fight against depression. He tells me I just "think the wrong way." Maybe he's right.

As you seem to know, the first challenge of daily life is to wake up and get up and overcome that awful inertia that sets in over the course of the night. It didn't seem this bad when I was younger. Now I have physical achiness in the morning, just due to age related physical changes, which makes the morning burden heavier. My guy doesn't even get that. Today I was just desperate for someone to understand and relate.

I do believe that managing my problem with depression is my responsibility, and I'm not applying myself as hard as I need to. I'm interested in suggestions to help me get over that morning hump.

[Rose76]

Originally Posted by omegalamed

Rose76, I get out of bed, go to the bathroom, get the coffee going, then take a hot shower. I get out, pour my coffee, have my breakfast, sit and take my time eating it. Then i lounge around with another cup until i wake up. A radio going with the news for the day or some nice music helps tremendously. I hope this helps. Blessings.

Thank you for these concrete suggestions. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I should give it a try. I bet having a morning routine does help get you through that first part of the day. When I was working, I did the shower and breakfast. Having somewhere that I had to be forced me to pull myself together. Now I'm retired and my "job" is looking after my sig. other. It keeps me engaged, but I can get away with doing nothing in the morning. So I tend to do nothing in the morning.

I feel awful guilty for being so useless in the morning. I'm not fighting it hard enough. Something has to change.

[Rose76]

Originally Posted by LauraBeth

Mornings...UGH. I awaken too early feeling panicky and depressed. Every morning. I am sooo worn down from it.

I didn't use to suffer from the early morning awakening that I've read plagues many people with depression. Aging has changed that. Some nights, I wake up every couple of hours. I know I'll never again sleep as I did when I was young.

[Rose76]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

I pray for death every morning in the shower...

I give you a lot of credit, Skeezyks, for making it as far as the shower every morning.

Lots of mornings, I wake up with dreaded feelings. I'm thinking that something terrible is going to happen. Mostly I think that this could be the day that some health problem is going to happen. Or something bad is going to happen at work. Some mornings I just feel depressed because I get thinking about the way my life is going.

Usually after breakfast, I feel better. And I would feel better when I get going with things. There are times when the dreaded thoughts just come on, even when I'm feeling alright.

[Rose76]

Hi will19. I guess we wake up with a mind open to whatever thoughts first occur to us. For people with depression, that tends to be fears and sad forebodings. I'm sorry to hear you have such a bad time in the morning. Food in the stomach can help. About all I can manage is a bowl of cereal.

Like you, when I get goong on anything that absorbs my attention, I feel better. In fact, often, I feel just fine. Sounds like you are actually struggling more than I am. I know the future will bring some bad things, but I manage to put those thoughts aside. I ask myself what can I do now to make the future better. If I decide there's not much more I can do, then I let go of the future.

[Rose76]

I want to send hugs to everyone who has responded above. It sounds like you all know about those morning blues.

[lima01]

I am an old guy so pardon me from stating the obvious. If you are able- the very best chemicals come from inside you so if you can force yourself to get some exercise by walking etc. The first thing in the morning really helps. No matter which doctor you get they always add exercise if you can at the end of the visit . Its a struggle I fight each day . I like to put myself first, riding my bike or a walk at dawn , then the shower ,then some hot tea- earl grey for sure. lifts my spirits and the depression eases.
Yes we all have sleep problems when we get older but there are some things you can do . I have had the sleep study, I was on the sleep apnea cpap machine but I exercised and lost weight - got off the machine . No more reflux etc. I'm developing better sleep habits, it takes some work . I miss the sleep of the dead from my youth! oh well !!!. Good luck to you .

[little turtle]

mornings were my worst time...it is common...it has something to do with the endocrine
system...

[Rose76]

Thank you, lima. I truly am neglecting getting enough exercise. I keep putting off starting something. Somehow I have to start. I used to love Earl Grey tea. Haven't had it in a few years. My weight also has recently gone up and reflux is like a knife in my chest sometimes.

Endocrine . . . ? I have to combat that somehow. Lima seems to be onto something that is succeeding for him. I got to push myself.

I understand. I should put a caveat here: I haven't read the entire thread. I have very little structure in my life anymore and my sleep patterns are abnormal so I don't get much of the morning blues anymore. My morning blues were usually caused by watching the light creep in as the sun rose after yet another sleepless night.
At other times in my life it was just the prospect of facing a new day. That may have been attributable to a negative attitude... the result of too many previous days of sheer crappiness.
Mornings are beginnings. A time of expectations. Demands to be met. Those are very difficult situations seen through the lens of depression.

[Rose76]

Thanks, George . . . for understanding. I did better when there was somewhere I had to be early in the day. I guess I benefitted from the structure. Even when I've had enough sleep, I feel so physically tired in the morning. A neighbor of mine goes to a gym most mornings to work out. I went with her once. When I came home I just collapsed into my bed.

With me, it feels like the absence of any energy and no interest in anything. That wears off eventually. But it can take hours. When it does wear off, I find myself wondering what the big problem was. But every morning I'm back in that pit with the steep walls . . trying to figure out how to climb up.

Funny . . . I feel better when there's less light. I feel better on rainy days.

Rainy days prevent a lot of activities. Maybe you feel relief from some of the pressures of having to do "a thing" because the rain takes a lot of them off the list? Just talking here... not trying for serious analyzation. Spell check is telling my analyzation isn't a real word
I find myself doing a different thing these days. Different for me at least. I call it turning away. It probably sounds like avaoidance but there is a subtle but profound difference. It isn't that I can't face something or have no interest exactly... I just don't want to anymore... so I turn away.
And yes... structure is good generally.

This is sad to say, but I truly believe the one thing that motivates me in the mornings (if one can call motivation the act of begrudgingly getting out of bed and readying oneself to take on the day), is my overwhelming (yet unrealized) fear of ending up homeless and living out on the streets! ... I need to discuss this with my therapist! ... I've been on my own for 20+ Years now, and even though this thought was planted in my head by my abusers in an attempt to keep me from leaving, it still haunts the hell out of me in a very unhealthy way!

[hopeless2015]

Mornings are the worst for me too even on my meds I think every morning that I just don't want to move, to not get up, go to work etc. Recent med change has seemed to help some. It knocks me out so I'm getting good sleep and waking early. I've been taking that quit time to have my morning coffee and search for something positive to share on Facebook, as much for myself as anyone else who might enjoy it as well. Hugs to you all

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[*Laurie*]

This morning I awoke in a panic as usual. I doubled my Inderal (proponalol) dose and was so glad, because it actually helped! 10 minutes after taking the Inderal I felt less anxious.