The Worst Thing About Being Run Down

The worst thing about being run down is that its symptoms look a lot like clinical depression. You've lost the energy and desire to just "get with it" and start taking action to make process on your goals or back onto the road of well-being.

It's not a nice place being in this run down and overly fatigued state. It feels and looks a lot like depression. Let's look at some of the overlapping symptoms of both depression and symptoms of being run down.

1. First of all, you're unmotivated. You just can't muster up a sustainable amount of energy to stay motivated for more than a few hours or days.

2. You're listless. You can't say what would get you motivated, excited or interested. You zap through TV stations not finding anything of interest. You can't get into a good novel either.

3. Your sleep is off. Maybe you have trouble sleeping yet that is all you really want to do. Maybe you wake up a lot at night, and your sleep isn't very restful. So you drag this constant feeling of fatigue around with you all day long. And magically when you're ready to go to bed at night, you're no longer tired.

4. Your body doesn't respond well to physical exercise. Maybe it is even sending you pain and soreness to keep you from exercising. You know, that feeling when you get up in the morning where you feel like you'd been exercising the day before but actually haven't. Plus, you know you should exercise but just the thought of it is keeping you from actually doing anything about it.

5. Worst of all, you just can't seem to find that gumption to jump back into action like you used to. Everything just feels so draining. Even getting dinner. Unless it's take-out. This sparks anger in you, which you in turn transform into a mental self-esteem basking, beating yourself up like negative feedback will actually turn into a positive.

So the vicious cycle of not taking action, not getting the things done that you wanted to get down and then berating yourself for this "laziness" keeps you from finding a gentle and loving solution.

And of course, the worst thing about being run down like this is that you just don't see any way out of your dilemma because you know you need energy to get moving and you can't seem to connect with that type of energy long enough to get back into a healthier habit.

While you must ask yourself if you do have clinical depression or need professional help, ask yourself what's dragging you down. Is it work related? Home related? Or something deeper? If you can't put your finger on it, then try doing these three things:

• journal about what you're ideal life would look like


• take a vacation - try even a day or weekend away to change your external stimulus


• tweak your diet for a healthier one

Sometimes just adding some fresh fruit, bumping up your vitamins and drinking more water is all it takes to replenish deep-seeded fatigue. Sometimes it just takes a small step in the right direction to get the ball moving and you back on the path of energy and motivation.