How to overcome depression when all bad things seem to happen at the same time
Okay so yesterday I had a REALLY bad day!! It started out like every day does with my kids all yelling, fighting, and screaming at each other. I tried to just ignore it, because I found when I jump in it usually gets worse. The fighting ended with one of my kids being pushed down on our floor downstairs, and getting a gash in his forehead that was all the way down to the muscle!!! I felt bad because I was crying and hugging him close to me, and he was trying to reassure ME that everything was going to be alright! Then I went shopping at Wal-mart and went to check out, just to discover that I had left my credit card at home! Wal-mart was super busy, and I had just stood in a line for 30 mins by that time. I went home got my credit card, went back, stood in line for 20 mins again, just to be told that someone else was going to have to help me, and that I was going to have to stand in line again! At this point, I am ready to cry. I ask to speak to a manager who gets the situation resolved for me after about another 30 mins. Then, as I go to leave Wal-mart(it was dark, and there were shadows everywhere) I didn't see a shopping cart return, and backed into it!! At this point my day had been so bad, I started laughing like some crazy lady!!! The whole day I was trying to use the coping skills I have learned so far like positive self talk. However, at the end of the day I still felt like crap. Does that mean I'm not doing it right?
Of course it doesn't mean you aren't doing it right! That was a really crappy day, and it didn't have anything to do with you making it crappy because of your thoughts.
Here is the deal with people like us. We start recovery and think that we should be able to do everything perfectly.
Which means no matter what happens we should be able to just tell ourselves a few positive things and brush it off our shoulders.
Even people without this problem to the extreme we are dealing with it get overwhelmed and stressed out, down, ticked off and exhausted. No big deal. Not everything is going to go great, and even when you overcome the state of depression, you will still feel depressed somedays. EVERYONE goes through that, that part is just life. Just keep up the good work! And tomorrow is another day.
Here is the deal with people like us. We start recovery and think that we should be able to do everything perfectly.
Which means no matter what happens we should be able to just tell ourselves a few positive things and brush it off our shoulders.Even people without this problem to the extreme we are dealing with it get overwhelmed and stressed out, down, ticked off and exhausted. No big deal. Not everything is going to go great, and even when you overcome the state of depression, you will still feel depressed somedays. EVERYONE goes through that, that part is just life. Just keep up the good work! And tomorrow is another day.
Hi Becky, I'd say you were doing things right. That was a bad day for anyone, but my clue to your progress is that you kept your gears in neutral. It's hard, and your day sounded really difficult, yet you somehow used some tools to stay in neutral. Using the self talk tools is a challenge. The other day for every positive thing I replaced in my mind, another person (exterior stress) told me a couple of negatives about me! I would listen and think, not true, and for once I realized, I believed myself. The things he said were simply not true. So, I ended the day with gears in neutral, but that's better than sitting swimming in self defeat. I think you did a good job, in light of all your very real external stressors, to end the day not beating yourself up. External stressors are real. We learn to use self talk tools to modify and change internal negative dialogue. I think it's positive that you just shared all this with us. Keep us posted. Kind regards, Pecos