Diurnal Depression

[SooBee61]

I wonder if anyone else suffers with this? It's when you wake up feeling depressed, it lasts all morning, sometimes into the afternoon, and then eases up in late afternoon and evening. I take a small dose of Dosulepin at night to help with sleep (SSRI's don't work for me) and just wonder if I have to live with this till it eases, if it ever does.

I found this on a website (www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/84292/88543/depression/) which described it well:

• Sleep can be a refuge for those of us who suffer from depression. Waking up disrupts that peaceful feeling as the pressures and anxieties of the day come flooding into our consciousness. It is so to speak, a "rude awakening." Some days when I wake up, my worries feel like I am being pelted by rocks. They seem all the more magnified because of the sharp contrast between sleep and wakefulness.

• When you are depressed, the beginning of the day can seem overwhelming. There is so much time ahead for things to potentially go wrong. There are days when I wake up and think, "Please help me to survive this day." Those are the days you have to literally push yourself to get out of that bed.

I'd be interested to know that I'm not alone in this! Please someone reply as I've had such little luck on mumsnet with posts.

I sympathise with this as it happens to me too - I read somewhere that there is a surge of cortisol near waking up time to 'prime' us for the day but if we are already suffering anxiety, it sets up strong feelings of fear and anxiety. I often wake really early, start to wonder if I can get back to sleep, then realise I need to go to the toilet (don't want to give tmi but - unavoidably IYSWIM).

Usually I feel rather better once I get up and make a cup of tea, but its been 'closing in' lately, so have just started ads. Not kicked in yet though

I suffer in the opposite way. I wake up feeling OK, then the low hits early afternoon and nights are awful.

However, I have bipolar & the lows tend to be with awful agitation and insomnia so probably a different beast......

Good luck with AD's Mary, hope they work for you.

Sorry to hear of your bipolar meme, a very different beast to 'ordinary' depression (if there's such a thing!)

I suffer from anxiety which is always worse first thing in the morning too

I know what you mean. Waking up with a feeling of total dread. With me it's wondering who I might have offended or what I might have done.

Hi SooBee, how's it going? I think the (v low dose so far) ADs are starting to help a little - or maybe it's just the 'flight to health'...

I do find when I wake up with that dread (still happens a bit), getting straight out of bed - even just going to the spare be with a cuppa and a crossword, really helps.

That's really interesting. I have bpd so my moods are pretty irratic but when I'm low it's always in the morning when I wake up, I have to drag myself out of bed and it often slowly lifts over the day. My anxiety is the same, way worse in the morning and deminishes slightly the more I do.