Take a day off

[Cheesemonster13]

Try to set aside a day or even a half-day for yourself, every so often. This is time you do all the things that you enjoy, and put aside all the things that you should be doing.

If you feel like it, lie on the sofa and read an escapist book or watch entertaining films. I eat a whole packet of chocolate digestives, and drink chai latte because they comfort me. I burn scented oil on my oil burner to help me relax.

I try to do this on a fairly regular basis, especially when I have spent a few days tackling the things that make me anxious or frightened. It is a reward for doing things that I find difficult, an incentive to carry on with the good work and a welcome break from the constant struggle that is everyday life. As I suffer from very low self-esteem, by doing this I am reminding myself that I am deserving.

I also try to do something every day that I like, even if it is only for ten minutes.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Sounds like a good positive way to move forwards.

Having something to look forward to is useful as motivation can be a real pain with these disorders. You get stuck in ruts easily where every day is the same and your mood drops.

[Elen]

All brilliant advice.

My problem is when I am suffering that I loose the ability to enjoy anything.

I do make the effort to do things which I remember getting enjoyment out of but basically nothing rocks my boat so to speak.

Sounds like you are definitely on the right path and well done to you.

[MyNameIsTerry]

All brilliant advice.

My problem is when I am suffering that I loose the ability to enjoy anything.

I do make the effort to do things which I remember getting enjoyment out of but basically nothing rocks my boat so to speak.

Sounds like you are definitely on the right path and well done to you.

I know what you mean, Elen. My CBT therapist asked me what I enjoyed and I couldn't think of anything. It wasn't just a matter of feeling down, I just felt like meh about the subject. She might as well have asked me what my favourite housebrick was.

Something I have found useful in mood stabilisation is high strength Omega 3. It's done much more for me than Duloxetine ever has.

[Elen]

She might as well have asked me what my favourite housebrick was.

PMSL Terry that sums it up perfectly.

I need to get my head into gear and start doing things to help myself such as diet etc, it all just seems beyond me somehow.

[Cheesemonster13]

Hi MyNameIsTerry and Elen

My problem is when I am suffering that I loose the ability to enjoy anything.

My CBT therapist asked me what I enjoyed and I couldn't think of anything.

Yes, it's so true, when you are in a very bad way, just holding yourself together takes all your time and energy. Then when you start to recover a little, you find that you have lost the ability to find pleasure in anything. When I first tried writing a list of things that I liked to do, it took me forever, MyNameIsTerry, just to think of one thing to add to the list.

Maybe you just have to do what you are doing, Elen, go through the motions and hope that you will eventually start to enjoy what you did in the past. Possibly, it is a sign that you have changed, and you need to try something new.

[MyNameIsTerry]

One thing to think about is how you perceive it. We often look at a problem with what in Mindfulness circles is called the DOING mode, the analytical side. It works in A-B's and it's not good at looking at a complex issue like anxiety. Give it smaller blocks to work on.

Something I learned early on was some basics of Behavioural Activation, a fancy title for "do more stuff". The way I recall this working was by picking a very small number of tasks to do on a daily basis. They add up over time.

I also learned that I could use my better periods to embed newer behaviours. I just couldn't approach anything new or that required a change in my bad periods. Because my anxiety was quite cyclical I would try to start new things in the better periods so that they became a routine and I found whilst I hated every minute of the day in the bad periods, I carried on with them. This is how I dragged myself out of the worst stages of my anxiety.

Both of those methods could easily work with Cheesemonster's original advice.

[Cheesemonster13]

Well, I wouldn't be able to do this, if you hadn't explained mindfulness to me in an old post, MyNameIsTerry. I practice it now, and it allows me to focus on a pleasurable activity, rather than feeling guilty about what I should be doing.

Oh, and I quite often have to have days off too when I'm going through bad patches - it seems to be cyclical for me as well. I'm learning to accept, that some weeks or months will be mostly be long periods of inactivity combined with anxiety, apathy and/or depression. I find acceptance and mindfulness (and prozac) help to reduce the length of those periods.

[Volpes]

It's true, just a simple thing that is widely suggested in various forms and yet many of us overlook because of the excuse of being busy and so on.

But wellbeing comes first, so I'll remember to do this.