Depression

Hi, it seems like I am going through another bout of depression, but this one is different. In the past, depression would lead me to over-sleep and over-eat. Now, for the first time, I am experiencing the opposite. My sleep is disturbed - I have nightmares, wake up often, it takes a long time to fall asleep, I sleep much less hours. I have always been a deep sleeper and have noticed that the amount and quality of sleep I get is greatly linked to my mood. This is proving to be a real problem for me.

The other thing is eating. I have so little appetite, I have to force food into my body, and even then, it won't tolerate very much. I have managed to eat a bit more in the last few days. I notice that trying to eat a little bit often is easier than trying to cram in a big meal. I don't really mind the weight loss (I've lost approx. 10 pounds in the past 3-4 weeks), but I know that losing weight this rapidly is not healthy. All my clothes no longer fits and it is quite annoying. I need to eat other things than bananas and cereal - this is not a balanced diet but it's what I can eat the most of and tolerate best.

Anyways, my question is this... does anybody have any tricks to get yourself back into a healthy routine? I do not cook very often (my dishes and kitchen are too filthy) and have a lot of difficulty with disciplining myself. I know that trying to go to bed and waking at the same hour every day would be good for me, but that's just not possible right now. If I go to bed and can't sleep, it gets me very frustrated. I usually need to wait until I feel I can no longer hold my eyes open before I hope under the covers.

Thanks for any suggestions and reading all of this!

Hi! it sounds like your body may be out of sync right now. I find that when I am not taking care of my body, eating healthy drinking lots of water that I have these kind of problems. Do you have a lot more on your mind lately? Not sure if this helps.

Thanks for replying Helen.

Drinking water is definately not a problem, unless you would consider drinking too much of it one... As for eating healthy, I try, but it's not easy. My kitchen and dishes are not clean enough to cook, everything in my fridge is rotten and there is no more room for fresh food, also I can't stomach very much food right now. I do have a lot on my mind - but unfortunately can't really do much about that.

Take care

I can agree with the others on drinking alot of water. I was just recently diagnoses with depression/panic disorder. I also have troubles falling asleep and when i do im lucky if i sleep for three hours. im awake off and on all night. I went to the pharmacy yesterday and bought some chamomile tea. It is caffine free and it's purpose is to relax you and help you sleep better at night. I tried it last night for the first time, and i slept better than i have in 2 months. i strongly suggest you try it, it was also only four dollars. good luck to you!

Hi Freesia, it sounds to me like your household chores have been getting on top of you. Maybe the state of your kitchen is adding to your problem with food at the moment.

One solution would be simply to put everything in black binliners and throw it all away and start again. I know that some tasks can seem daunting or just irrellevant when you are suffering from a bout of depression, but preparing your own food is a good way to start noticing again what you need to put into your body to make it work.

You say the food in your fridge is rotten, well this is unhealthy so throw it all out. Then throw out any pans or utensils that are really dirty. We often avoid throwing things away but sometimes it can help to make it feel like a fresh start, and once they're gone itl seem alot cleaner.

Then buy yourself 2 cheap saucepans (all you need), a wooden spoon and some fresh food. Just try to cook simple things, pasta and sause for example.

Hope it helps. x

I too had an underweight stage because of the med Cylert. I lost about 100 lbs (I was overweight then) I got to about 103 lbs and started to really concentrate on gaining. My kitchen was filthy too and I couldn't go grocery shopping myself. I asked husband to get several boxes of granola cereal, several bags of almonds, cranberries, raisins, and dried fruit. I kept it in a large tin in my bedroom and spooned it out for myself whenever I could. That helped me a lot. I also made milkshakes with ice cream, milk, frozen strawberries and a whipped egg Adds protein). This could be made once and frozen. This kept me going until I changed my medication (which has caused me to gain 60 lbs again) Good luck---I know your pain.