live day by day?

My T told me to narrow my time frame and try to get by day by day or even hour by hour, but I have no idea how to do that. I can't help but think about my future and, hopefully going back to work because I can't stand being a total burden on society, and how long can one excuse oneself? How does one live day by day without any goals or hopes? And why?

You are your future. What is more important than that? There's no shame in taking care of yourself. Then when you're ready you'll have so much more to give to others.

Sounds like what is practised in AA, taking sobriety "just for today"...its easier said than done, though at times its given me a nano second of relief in my early days..I'd start to panic about how I was going to get through this moment? and I'd then say, ok, just for today, and I found the moment moved onto another moment where perhaps and that how I felt does and can change, it gave how I was feeling an objective feel rather than just subjective...as I say, its easier said then done, but it can help in moments of panic...and with time you begin to believe or trust that moments do change and some moments are better than others.

Living day by day does not preclude planning for the future. I'm in AA, sober slightly over 6 months and have found that the idea of "just for today" to be incredibly powerful. The idea is that you don't let yourself ruminate on things that happened in the past because you can't change them, and you don't obsess about the future and what could go wrong, because you can always deal with the future when it arrives. All you have to focus on is dealing with one day - today, and if today is a crappy day, that's ok, because tomorrow is going to be another day and it might be better, but all you have to do is get through today, in my case without picking up a drink. That's a lot easier to think about than not picking up a drink for forever. In a lot of ways its' like mindfullness meditation which is about living and appreciating fully each experience in the now.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't have goals and plans for the future though, but I look at is a question of what can I realistically do about it today. For example I was unemployed for 15 months due to mental health problems and my addiction and for the first 12 months I didn't think about working at all because I knew I needed to get healthy first. Then when I did start job hunting, I broke it down into activities I could handle. Today I'm going to redo my resume. Today I'm going to go for interview coaching. Today I'm going to check these job boards and apply to X number of jobs and then once I've finished with today's tasks I tried not to worry about finding a job. It didn't work 100% of the time, but it did make life easier.

Good luck.

--splitimage

Thanks all, for your support and the best explanations I've yet heard about day-by-day. But, I'm still not very comfortable about the idea because I"m at the point where the decisions and paperwork and emails and phone calls I deal with or don't deal with today will determine everything about my possibility of returning to my career, job, health insurance, etc. I don't know, when it really comes down to it, I don't know how I can think just about today.

Sorry, I'm just feeling particularly obstinate and whiny...

Hi foreverlost!! I'd like to share something that I hope may help you, it sure has saved me many a time. It's a little list, mentioned by members above "Just For Today". I posted it in the Community Forums. Please go under the "Depression Forum". Then go to "Top Depression Resourses Online" scroll down to "Just For Today" my name is mlpHolmes. Other ppl have added on to it. When things get overwhelming for me, or it's a day I'm living like you said hour to hour, I live by the ideas in "Just For Today" I actually get to LIVE that day. Best of Luck! I hope you find "Just For Today" useful also!
Marian

Thanks mlp. I will check it out immediately. It's so nice of you to point me there. I've just been sleeping as much as possible, somteimes 20 hours, with the help of meds because I don't know what else to do.