Sliding back

[Volser]

My motivation is fading and I'm sliding back into old ways of thinking. In hindsight it's not surprising, every attempt I've had an "epiphany" and chosen to push, only to have it fade in time. I still have a little fight in me, and this time I've developed supports, and gotten on meds (yet to see if they work). There's some things I can drop from my workload to make my life easier but that feels like giving up and will probably make me feel like shit for giving up, it also feels like a slippery slope of giving in to negativity. On the other hand if I don't lighten my workload I'll probably feel like shit because I can't handle it. How the heck do people keep the fire in their heart alight?

 

[Jack_Nimble]

They don't keep motivated. No one ever does. Never once has motivation been a constant for anyone. I too noticed my motivation leaving before a depressive episode would begin. Finally I had my eyes opened by another human about motivation. The secret is no one is constantly motivated.

That said you can look up and start learning about how to improve your BASELINE dopamine levels. The two easiest way I know of are exercising and cold showers. Or hot showers that end cold. But it can't work if it's cold then hot. The key to increasing baseline dopamine with cold is to not use any heat source to warm yourself up. Sure, use stuff to insulate yourself and hold in heat like clothing and blankets. But the truck is using your own body to generate the heat after experiencing the cold.