Lack of motivation while fighting depression

Hi everyone! this is my 2nd post and i wanted to say thanks to the replies i got, they helped me a lot. Knowing there's people out there in a similar place as mine and are fighting from there encourages me.

About the title's subject. I've started college now and yes, I'm feeling way better than a while ago but the lack of motivation to get up and do things that need to get done is worrying me. Now it's college, it's somehow the 'real deal' for me as of now. I've 'failed' college 2 yrs already. Mostly because of my bad emotional state. But I really don't want it to be the case this year.

I specifically describe it as lack of motivation because before it wouldn't be this. Before it'd be straight up sadness, self hatred and getting out bed only to go to the toilet; this for days.
Now it isn't like that. Actually I haven't been in this place before. Now I'm not feeling sad, nor with extremely low self-steem. I simply feel skeptical, bored of this life. Why am I even doing this? There's nothing that I look forward in my life. Is there something out there that makes it worth living?

I know one of the things that most of the times makes me feel better is cleaning up my room, it has been on my plans for two weeks but I simply don't feel like doing it.
I've even written down a list of "Things that lift my mood". They're 3 things, 2 of them I'm too lazy to do.

What have you noticed that helped lift your spirits, get some motivation, think of the future and how if you don't get things done, those stuff you somehow plan will never arrive and you'll most likely be the same, if not more, unhappy?

Do you write any kind of journal? About quotes/images/etc that motivate you? Do you write down your dreams/goals? Do you have any kind of tracking on how your mood/emotional state goes? If the answer is yes, has it helped you?

Hi,
Journals and any kind of lists have not helped me.(unless to do list such as: take a shower, comb your hair, etc. baby steps at my lowest low)
What helped get me through: taking care of my pets, aromatherapy, getting back to some relationships, getting back to things I used to enjoy (not easy), come here to seek clarity, volunteering
Hope this is helpful

I journal and from time to time go back and read it. It has been helpful because I can see progress because right now I am doing better than I have in the past, even though I am still not where I want to be. I am considering starting a separate journal of the things I do each day. I am hoping that will help me realize I am doing stuff with my days. I have struggled to with days of lack of motivation to do ANYTHING at all. Hang in there.

We feel depressed and demotivated, because we are out of touch with ourselves. We have been forcing ourselves to do something for years, which we are not interested in - because we are afraid, or it could be just intellectual laziness to think about what we want, and pursue it. Our depression is our body's way of telling us to stop doing that thing, and do some introspection.

YES!!

May be that you have been depressed for such a long time that you have forgotten how to motivate yourself? Once in a very hard period of my life I hang up small pictures of the reward I had planned for myself when the semester ended ( boats, bicycles , sunshine, people cooking outside, landscapes, swims at the seaside etc). I hang these pictures at a place where nobody other then me would see them. On top of them I hang some inspiring words. It did inspire me to pull myself together.

Another technique that I used was to imagine that I was the leader of a group of youngsters (may be we can call them the inside opposite forces ). I "talked" to the youngsters in a mild voice: "Oh yes, I know you want to do other things, but now it is time for ..., come on now. We have to hurry".

Generally I use to work with myself from different corners. I set apart time for physical exercise and meditation/relaxation, four meals a day and so on.

The key to keep all this together is, for me, to make weekly plans that I try to follow. I try to make the plans realistic. If I can only do physical exercises for 10 minutes I don't plan to do it for 30 minutes. I try to not to allow myself to beat myself up if I have days when I feel unable to follow the weekly plan.

When really out of motivation, it can sometimes be rewarding to force oneself to what one has to do even if there is now motivation at all. Remember to take pauses in between if you want to make plans for yourself.

Somebody recommended this sheet for planning:

http://www.allaboutdepression.com/cy...ercise_6_2.pdf

Another helpful tool can be "Facing Us":
https://www.facingus.org/

Send my best wishes for you!

PS. I have found it helpful to work with one problem at the time, as well. That is to pick out the most important topic to work with, as an example social anxiety. When using a plan, it is easy to plan a time for thinking about how to solve it, set apart time to practice before going to meet others and so on. DS

I can relate.. I have lack of motivation as well Do you have depression?

Wishing you strength

Hi MoonSky,

Sorry you're feeling this way. These are the same feelings my boyfriend (or maybe not anymore, idk) would say or post about before he disappeared -- either he's angry or he lacks motivation or that nothing excites him and I don't know how to help because he does not want to discuss it . I myself have been depressed in the past -- didn't want to talk to anyone, didn't want to get up in the morning and took sleeping pills to go back to sleep. Journal'ing doesn't work for me although every person have their own ways of coping. I get motivated when I see I'm able to accomplish things (even small things like clearing the sink at that time), then I would feel better -- I feel more depressed when my surroundings are cluttered. This is VERY difficult when you don't even have the energy to get up but since I live on my own, I force myself to do it.. little by little, cuz no one will help me do it. I suggest that you be kind to yourself and understand that it is not easy to do that, to say the least. Do things little by little and pace yourself.. you have time. You are very young. If I were you, I would do things slowly but surely rather than set myself up for failure. So if you think that you can't even get yourself out of bed or can't get yourself interested in going to class, then just take one class - don't go full load. If you feel you have more energy the next semester, then take more. If it would help to be selfish and spoil yourself, then do that. What I mean is, do things that will make you happy and don't think about the future. The more you think about the future, the more you think about the responsibilities you will have to get to that place, and that will put emotional/mental burden on you. Forget about the future, just worry about what's current. For example, people keep telling me to save money for the future, and some of my hobbies are a little expensive - but I still do them because these are things that are keeping me happy and keeping me distracted from all the crappy stuff going on that can potentially bring me back to depression. A lot of times when I am struggling with work and school, I have to turn down dinner invitations from friends even if I haven't seen them for a long time because of my busy schedule. I have to destress by doing stuff I enjoy doing -- on my own, where I don't have to think about anyone else. It's selfish but you gotta take care of yourself first and lift yourself back up before you can go back to dealing with life's responsibilities.

One thing that helped me tremendously to be honest is changing my diet and being active. I used to eat a lot of sugar (ice cream for lunch/dinner) and I had terrible anxiety along with depression. After I stopped having sugar as a staple for my meals, I felt so much better (actually it's sugar, chocolate and coffee but hey you may be different and your body may have strong constitution but still wouldn't hurt to try). If you have a sweetooth then I understand it's counterintuitive.. but I must say that pretty much every time I feel anxious or depressed I can tell that it's because I've been eating crappy. Good luck with class and hugs!

I journal to track my moods to see if there is a pattern of behavior. I also make short doable lists to try to try and get some feeling of accomplishment. Hope this helps.