Unfortunately, when you're fighting depression, it's really common to at times feel lack motivation.
And, in order to help you feel understood and that you are not alone, right now, we'd like to share with you a free excerpt from our "Depression Lack-Of-Motivation" Journal that details what "depression lack-of-motivation" feels like, looks like and sounds like - according to members of The Depression Project's community.
Free excerpt
What Does Lack Of Motivation Feel Like When You Have Depression?
According to members of The Depression Project’s community, this is what lack of motivation feels like when you have depression:
- “No desire to do anything. Lack of hope for the future. An empty numbness. Neglecting everything as well as yourself.”
- “A sense of not knowing where life is going … and not even caring.”
- “Feeling like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
- “A constant state of exhaustion.”
- “Stagnant energy, decreased self-respect and esteem. Poor focus. No creativity.”
- “Frustration at knowing I have a long list of things that need to get done, but no ability – no matter how badly I want to – to actually get up and do those things, or even one thing. And then being mad at myself for not doing anything. And then not having the mental capacity to push past the ‘invisible brick wall’ and do even a little thing. And then being even more mad at myself for not getting even a little thing done. On and on.”
What Does Lack Of Motivation Look Like When You Have Depression?
According to members of The Depression Project’s community, this is what lack of motivation looks like when you have depression:
- “Staring at the wall for just five minutes, only to barely move your eyes and see that it has been four hours.”
- “Putting off doing even the simple things. I shop once a month. I never bother to turn off the TV. I don’t clean. I only eat when I can’t stand the pain!”
- “Sleeping a lot. Stop talking to friends and family. Isolation.”
- “Procrastinating. Hoping that you get that spur of energy and productivity, but then you get distracted by something else, and then you’re overwhelmed and you’re back to procrastinating.”
- “It looks like not washing your hair or body for long periods of time; it looks like laundry untouched in a pile or strewn all about; it looks like dirty dishes piled in the sink; it looks like missed doctor’s appointments; it looks like undone paperwork of different types; it looks like never changing clothes, wearing pj's all day, not cooking and eating just junk to get by; it looks like crazy sleep patterns. It looks like many things. It looks like crying over any and everything all day long; it looks like old friends you don’t see any more or even call; it looks like letting your home rot all around you without any idea or plan to fix it.”
- “Constantly lying in bed, half playing the 6 out of 60 phone games you have that spark the tiniest amount of interest to try to feel like you’re accomplishing something.”
- “Sitting in one spot for hours, thinking of all the things you should or could be doing but don’t because it’s too overwhelming.”
- “Not caring about your body, sleeping all the time, eating junk food. I’m going down the bad hole again and it’s so hard getting out.”
- “Doing nothing for yourself. Making a list of daily tasks like brushing my hair or my teeth but I can’t even accomplish those small things. Dirty dishes for weeks and weeks. Start to do them and about a third of the way through have to go back to bed.”
- “Sitting on the sofa internally arguing with yourself, torn between knowing you need to do things but physically being unable to bring yourself to do them. Trying to verbally motivate yourself with no success.”
- “Being surrounded by interesting things to do, but not finding the motivation to do any of them.”
- “Don’t want to talk to friends, prefer to be alone, no energy. Want to do something, but the thought of actually doing it is overwhelming.”
- “It ‘looks like’: you bought tickets to a concert three months ago (paying hundreds of dollars for them), but on the night of the event, you seriously consider blowing it off because you ‘just can’t’.”
- “My home care goes down the drain and I don’t have the energy to cook. I just eat cereal or always buy takeaway food. It’s exhausting to physically care for myself, let alone interact with people. I withdraw. It’s too tiring to stay awake.”
- “For me, it is getting ready for a day of tasks, then sitting on the couch with no energy to do them.”
- “Spending two hours putting on a sock because you can’t convince yourself to get out of bed.”
- “Not wanting to do anything, no visiting, not wanting to work and just not wanting to do the things you used to love.”
- “My plants are dead, I’m tripping over dirty clothes and my room is a disaster.”
- “Knowing things should matter to you but not actually feeling it. You could go without starting tasks that are important on paper for ages because you have lost sight of how those things can make your situation better. Or, even if you do know, you think it’s just going to take too much energy that you don’t have anymore and that you won’t be able to do a good job anyway.”
- “It’s pulling out all of the projects I want to do, setting them next to me, and then just staring at them until I decide to either move them or just leave them there.”
- “When your ‘get up and go’ has ‘got up and gone’!”
- “Sitting and staring at videos, knowing that there are so many things you need to get done, but not even being able to start anything. I know what I have to do, but I just can’t.”
What Does Lack Of Motivation Sound Like When You Have Depression?
According to members of The Depression Project’s community, this is what lack of motivation sounds like when you have depression:
- “Why bother? It won’t make a difference. No-one cares anyway.”
- “It’s all too much.”
- “Everything is such an effort.”
- “This is too overwhelming.”
- “What’s the point?”
- “Nothing’s ever going to change.”
- “I’m not going to do this well, so why even try?”
- “I’m so useless and worthless for never getting anything done.”
- “Why can’t I just get up and do things like everyone else can?”
- “I’m a failure.”
End of free excerpt If you can relate to some or all of the above journal excerpt, our friend, then like we've said, please rest assured that you are NOT alone, and that feeling unmotivated when you have depression is extremely understandable given everything you're going through. All our love, The Depression Project Team. P.S. In addition to helping you feel as if you're not alone, we created this journal in order to help you overcome "depression lack-of-motivation", so that you can: