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Tips for those with depression?


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Or any other mental illness that can impede daily activities, too, I guess. (Please don't say "go see a doctor" as I personally am medicated and have regular therapy, so that advice isn't particularly applicable here haha - it's managed as well as it can be at this point.)

 

I was forcing for an hour a day for the first month and a half, but in the wake of a pretty bad "down-swing" I'm struggling when it comes to motivation. I find I spend more time apologizing to my tulpa for not having the energy to devote to active-forcing than I do actually, y'know, forcing. The only two times I've been able to sit down and focus in the past month have been 20-minute sessions that were kind of aimless and unfulfilling.

 

I've been trying to get back into the swing of it but I figured I ought to ask y'all if you have any tips you'd be willing to share since depression isn't all that uncommon (unfortunately) and I've also seen a fair amount of users with various MI diagnoses around.

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What stopped my depression for a while was regularly exercising. That could help if you don't do it already.

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It seems like a lot of people in this community claim to struggle with motivation, waiting until things feel right or until they're in the optimal mental state before they interact with their tulpa. The problem with this is that it's often counterproductive and fosters procrastination, which is what you should be trying to avoid. Instead, focus on discipline, forcing yourself to do things even when you're not in the mood for it - even if it's difficult, you'll slowly be getting rid of that reliance on motivation, and it'll be easier to force whenever you want. If you have to make a schedule where you gradually build up the time that you're supposed to be forcing, that's fine, but stick to it.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Depression is not so easy to beat. Winning may be a matter of psychological manipulation of yourself. A possible example of this is to regard forcing not as a responcibility, or as something hard, or that requires energy, but as part of yourself. Its presence in the day is a part of your life. Force without thinking about the energy required. Only some types of forcing require energy to work, anyway. Another example is to always force in a fun way, to stimulate the pleasure centres.

 

Habit forming can help. You can get to the point where forcing is what you do when you find other things hard. Then you can fall back on it. You can do it before getting out of bed. You can do it when relaxing after doing other things. You can do it automatically when your mind wanders.

 

I would definitely say don't apologise to your tulpa. This has the psychological effect of making you feel like you did something wrong, and this will make forcing more difficult.

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That was surprisingly good advice.

 

The key to dealing with motivation issues, for those that simply don't have motivation even when it would be appropriate to, is to stop seeing things as effort. Forcing, showering, going to school, exercise, whatever. Don't even bother trying to fight through it, it won't work and even if it does you'll get tired of it eventually. You have to learn to see them as not effort. Showering is a pretty good example in my opinion, something Lumi's mind is convinced is effort but is really not that bad. Focus on how much easier things are when you're doing them than your mind thought they would be. Realizing your fears of doing things because they're "effort" are completely irrational/blown out of proportion is important.

 

Honestly, this is one of the reasons "Just do it" actually works, because once you're doing it you realize it's not so bad. And the majority of the time, when told to "just do it" and you still don't, it's because you let your mind convince you it really would be that bad. I guess it could be. Plenty of things are a lot of work or unpleasant necessities. Spending time with your tulpa, or any of the other examples I gave, should not be. If they are, you're probably going about them wrong. There's exercising that isn't that stressful/requires too much effort, there's forcing that isn't that monotonous/requires obscene amounts of time.

 

Well, anyways, that's just one method of dealing with motivation issues. It's the only one that remotely works for us. Establishing habits is a form of it, "Just do it" is another based on ignoring the initial need for effort and getting into the flow so that it doesn't feel like work later. Initial "effort" is pretty important though, which is why I recommend learning to simply not treat things as work.

Hi. I'm one of Luminesce's tulpas. Unlike the others, I don't think I stand out too much from him personality wise.

I'm just special because "I'm a tulpa". So I don't think I've much to offer, here. I'm happy enough to just be with him.

Ask us stuff - https://community.tulpa.info/thread-ask-lumi-s-tulpas

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I'm bipolar myself, thankfully along a bit of a calendar, but it's definitely not easy to be motivated to get up and going during those days. There's a lot you can do to get yourself ready if you do happen to have a bit of a schedule, like myself. Like getting things ready beforehand to not have a workload or doubling up on things to be able to just take time off. At the end of it all, if you're having bipolar problems, the good times will come again and the struggle is less about breaking through it than it is lasting through it.

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Honestly I just questioned myself, "why i am depressed all the time? Is it worth it that i am always like this?" I just had enough and just do it, stop being depressed and do things for god sake. That little spark gave me determination to set myself free from this kind of mindset and just said fuck it, i will not be like this for the rest of my life and i just do it. I forcefully stopped being depressed and just set myself close to what i can make myself more happy and change myself in general.

 

 I disciplined myself to avoid things that can make me go in a state of depression and continued with this until i feel i get the motivation to step forward, i still do this even to this day.

 

Exercise can be a good way to supress deprssion, them endorphis can be helpful. I know this isnt a very decent advice but hey it worked for me maybe it might work for you.

Hello! I am nihi, i have 3 tulpas

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I myself had suffered from depression for about 2 years.

I found meditation and exercising very helpful.

Two meditation sessions a day, total of 1 hour taught me how to detach from my thoughts and just observe.

And exercising. I'm not an active person, I hate(ed) going outside.

So I got a dog. Big one that has much surface area (physical contact helps) as possible.

He forced me to go outside twice a day, and always offered me a warm hug when I needed one. I owe him my life in a way.

You will get better. I ensure.

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