Focus issues in depression

For those, who struggle with focus/concentration issues due to depression, what does that look like? Are you unable to focus because you are feeling negative and/or because you are focused on negative thoughts? Or it's not that simple? I hope my question made sense.

Thanks for any answer!

For me when depressed I can't focus because I just don't care. It's like being in a class that is teaching the most boring thing ever and trying to pay attention. I lose interest in everything.

Thanks for the reply. So you would say it's not because negative emotions (sadness etc) get in the way but simply because of lack of motivation?

I didn't understand your question. Most of the time there's not much of a distinction for me between feeling negative and focused on negative thoughts. One leads to the other and vice versa. I've got huge concentration issues. My brain locks into concentrating on the past and fear or anxiety about the future. i don't see anything that i have to look forward to so one day just sort of runs into the other.

When I was working and raising a child, the demands of getting through the day helped keep me focussed. I used to be able to concentrate for hours on obscure technical problems that were part of my work. It was kind of an escape.

Thanks for the answer.

I wasn't trying to make a distinction between negative feelings and negative thoughts. Just a distinction between negative anything and between anything else, like, plain unmotivated for no visible reason. That's the case for me. I often don't feel or think of anything in particular yet can't focus.

This is funny how we are so similar here but: I also used to be able to concentrate for hours on obscure technical problems that were part of my work... Maybe it was an escape, I don't know.

The problem is, I'm at some point where demands of getting through the day doesn't help fix the focus issues. I just have to wait and pray that it gets fixed in time before deadline for work is up. Incredibly stressful...

...Can I ask you, do you relate your concentration issues to depression or more to schizoaffective disorder? If this question makes any more sense.

There seem to be several causes of loss of focus in depression - I have identified that all of them impact on my functioning at the moment

1) Distracting thoughts (including past memories, current worries, suicidal ideation) - this affects me a lot - my thoughts seem either to spiral in many directions till I wear myself out when I do have energy, and when I don't it's just fogginess

2) Lack of energy due to loss of sleep and extreme effort keeping going (distracting thoughts also take energy)

3) Apathy and loss of motivation/volition

4) Cognitive effects - particularly on working memory which makes it hard to keep the thread, contention scheduling (ie filtering out possible options to maintain focus) which in turn seems to be affected by problems with executive function (overriding impulses), and problem solving affected by mental fog and lack of clarity

5) What is sometimes called 'psychomotor retardation' is also an issue - physically I am also slower and very clumsy, everything takes more effort, I find it's very easy to knock things over or drop things

Thanks. Why does depression cause the cognitive effects?

I also noticed two things:

1. Positive emotional reaction to something in the world that is in connection with what I'd like / "dream" about, as long as this reaction feels "real enough", it can suddenly clear all focus issues and then I'm able to do the task like I'm my old (still mentally healthy) self.

2. In general, if I can make myself feel the world is "real enough" (and without getting a bad reaction to focusing on the outside world), it increases my chances to get focus.

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone about these being "real enough"...??

I don't think the poster is claiming depression causes the cognitive effects, only that the cognitive effects arise in depression. Correlation is not causation.

Impacts on cognition are often bound up with depressive illness and these days are seen as one of the symptoms of moderate to severe depression rather than something secondary.

Cognitive deficits in depression | The British Journal of Psychiatry

But beware of simplistic causal interpretations of this, it's not so much that 'one causes the other' but more that they are part of the same thing.

Thanks, I was just basically curious about how/why the two go together.