Posted by fallsfall on June 7, 2005, at 10:10:04
In reply to Thank you all for the advice, posted by TamaraJ on June 5, 2005, at 17:26:58
I've been severely depressed for 10 year, and on disability for 8 of those 10 years. Being depressed became a way of life for me. My therapist and I have been working very hard to get me to a point where I am willing to give up the depression. It has served an important function for me - it has given me an excuse to avoid things that I am afraid of. So, our work in therapy is to understand what it is that I'm afraid of (getting better and losing therapy, potential failure, having people expect things of me that I may or may not be able to do, needing to do things I don't want to do). As we talk about these things in therapy I am able to see what about these fears is realistic and what isn't. And we can come up with plans to deal with the realistic fears.
So I would advise you to try to figure out what the benefits and drawbacks are of your current situation. This will help you to understand what makes things seem difficult, and then you can work on the actual difficulties instead of being overwhelmed by a problematic situation.
I have also tried to make some changes - for instance, I am a recovering workaholic - and this seems to be a good time to try to keep things from getting out of control in that area.
Allow yourself to take babysteps. Push a little, but not a lot. Pushing too fast just makes it worse for me. And when you really want to do something, but you aren't sure if you can - try it. Motivation makes an enormous difference. I find that if I follow what I *want* to do that those situations often come out really well, and that gives me more confidence to do other things.
Good luck!
poster:fallsfall
thread:507712
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050606/msgs/509024.html