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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

aibu to ask for your tips on depression?

31 replies

Josette77 · 15/11/2022 01:30

I have low grade depression. I am on medication for it and OCD but right now I am struggling. I am a single mum to a lovely boy with complex special needs. Life is beautiful, and hard, and unpredicatable. I feel like I'm constantly fighting to keep my head above water.
Tonight I had a shower which was prompted by the shower thread. I hadn't in three days. I have been so exhausted.

What other things do people.do to help their depression? Any tips would he greatly appreciated.

OP posts:
Coolcreature · 15/11/2022 16:46

Practically, ready meals help me a lot. Also I struggle to make my own choices, so I have 2 designated people who help me choose things (usually food related). Taxis instead of the bus. Rests.

Mentally, a list of everything I've achieved, I add to it all day, so I'd write down that I got kids dressed and to school. It can really show you how much you're managing whilst feeling unwell.

Josette77 · 15/11/2022 17:15

Coolcreature · 15/11/2022 16:46

Practically, ready meals help me a lot. Also I struggle to make my own choices, so I have 2 designated people who help me choose things (usually food related). Taxis instead of the bus. Rests.

Mentally, a list of everything I've achieved, I add to it all day, so I'd write down that I got kids dressed and to school. It can really show you how much you're managing whilst feeling unwell.

Those are great suggestions. 🌷

I really love the idea of keeping track of the things you have achieved.

Thank you for sharing these and huge hug to you. 💝

OP posts:
Coolcreature · 15/11/2022 19:10

Oh im glad you like my suggestions.

I just find it so useful when I look back at the days I felt dreadful yet still managed to get basic things done.

My favourite motto at the end of the day is "everyone's fed, no one's dead". As in, the kids are fed, they're alive and on those bad days, that's enough.

Oh and I got a dishwasher. Best thing I ever bought!

girlfriend44 · 15/11/2022 21:04

Watch Peter Kay .
Have a little dance
Get stuck into a good film.

Notanotherwindow · 15/11/2022 21:32

Force myself up and out of bed by a reasonable time, usually 10am.

Get washed and dressed and brush my teeth, whether I'm going out or not.

Go out every day. Take the dogs for a walk or if pissing down with rain, go for a drive or to the shopping centre and interact with people, even if only small talk with a cashier.

Be around animals. I've started learning to ride and the horses are a highlight of my week. The main horse I ride is so sweet and cuddly and the other one is enormous and regal looking and hilariously naughty with it. Somehow the size of him makes it funnier. Cannot be left unattended around any tack without playing with it. Caught him dragging a saddle across the round pen once just for shits and giggles.

See a therapist and if you need to, cry the whole session away. I really don't think I would be here if I hadn't met my therapist. He alternates between being my biggest cheerleader and bringer of the tough love but having that support has been crucial at times.

Don't be tempted to get signed off work. I will inevitably enter an anxiety spiral where I don't go because I'm too depressed and then get more depressed because there is no structure or purpose to my day, I'm not really achieving anything.

Write a list of tasks and do a minimum of one per day. 3 tasks in a day earns me a magnum. 5 and I make it a double raspberry magnum. Bribery is not just for recalcitrant children.

Try to tidy your home. If you're surrounded by mess, you feel worse.

Put music on. I have a playlist that starts with sad music and gradually progresses to gentle but slightly more hopeful music and then ends up on upbeat energetic music. My mood lifts as the tone of the music does.

AIBU123456789 · 15/11/2022 21:36

Exercise - walking, jogging and yoga work for me

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