Extreme Fatigue and Lack of Motivation

@olivia22819 @artscaping @lonelylady @marysunshine When I was working, each morning I got there about pretty early, in order to do a beautiful walk around the complex. It was always quiet in the morning, with birds. Then I would write a haiku, or journal, and start my long workday. I was working for the Court system, so it was pretty stressful. As I gradually got sick, my walks became shorter. The stress mounted not only from doing less exercise, but not starting my day refreshed. The walks stopped altogether when I no longer had the energy to do them. It was proven to me personally that the exercise is a big factor for me feeling better, and I am walking again. It feels good, and now when I have to miss a day [like today, due to early doctor appt], I look forward to tomorrow in order to get back into the swing. I want to work up to walking in to town to the post office, and home again!
Ginger

Oh wow! Who knew. I’m glad to hear that you are looking forward to it and getting back in the stride of it all. I’m finding it’s very important to have a exercise routine when you have a stressful job 😆

I have a problem though. I work from home and start at 5 in the morning. I would like to do something before work to help my mood but I am unable to get up earlier than I have too. I’m irritable in the mornings.

Thank you for reaching out to me so quickly. I'm not really sure how it works. The chronic depression is so debilitating and I find impossible to get friends/family to understand. I applaud you for joining a fitness club. I, like you, have been told exercise is key to our mental health issues. I am full of arthritis so I can relate to your chronic pain. My Dr. will not prescribe me narcotics or opioids. Walking is the best overall exercise you can do, so I've been told. So I order running shoes online (I rarely go out) and I believe I have walked 2x in 2 months. It's a start. I would love to walk every day, before the depression and arthritis hit I walked all the time. Baby steps, I would like to set up a walking schedule, but I feel defeated before I even start one. I am on so much depression medication, and at one time or another I have been on all of yours. Start small and gradually increase your exercise. If you are anything like me,(when I ordered the running shoes I was convinced I would walk 30 minutes each and every day!) and try to be proud that you got out of bed and did something. That is one of the toughest to do. Hopefully we can talk again, marysunshine. Do you remember the children's song " Good Morning Merry Sunshine" I going to check it out on YouTube.

Thanks so much for the reply. I actually have a therapist who I've been seeing for almost 12 years. I see her on Saturday and plan to discuss these issues. We've touched on it a bit but it's only really been the top concern for me in the past couple of weeks.

One issue for me is clutter and I need to get that under control before I actually have room to work on something. I do have a couple things I can work on though in the meantime that don't require much room. I will try to do what I can on those projects in the next few days and maybe it will lead to more. They are actually overdue birthday presents so I should get them done! Thanks again!

How are you doing, @enska? Do you have a friend or family member who could help clear out some clutter with you? I at one time had our upper story of our previous home (it was small - hall, closet, one bedroom) filled with stuff I'd stashed on one side of the hallway (various decorative objects, storage bins, etc.). It got overwhelming to me, and finally my mom offered to help me out. That really helped get it back to not-so-cluttered to have someone's help motivating me and more than just my hands doing the organizing work.

I forgot to reply back and I don't get emails from Connect. Sorry!

My therapist session went okay but I didn't really come away with much. I'm going to talk to my psychiatrist on Monday. I'm also going to consider applying for disability benefits since I'm not working and I do not feel in any way ready to get a job. I'm going to see what the doctor says on Monday before I plan anything else.

By chance I came upon the term "anhedonia" and read a little about it. I believe that's the symptom I'm experiencing. Unfortunately it's only gotten worse in the past couple weeks. I'm just frustrated because of the amount of meds I take...I wonder, shouldn't at least one of them do something? I guess they do keep my mood fine. Oh well. That's my update.