So last week I did my 'how to recognise a panic attack' post and I'm thinking about doing a weekly mental health related post as it got a pretty good response last time.
This time round I'm going to be discussing depression and how it can affect your motivation.

So, depression can take a lot out of you. You may not want to wake up in the morning and you may want to stay in bed all day... Everyday. This is just one of the symptoms of depression. You'll often feel exhausted, overly-tired and just very rough.
Lack of motivation can actually make you feel much worse as you'll lie in bed all day doing nothing and at the end of the day you'll go "oh crap, I didn't actually do anything productive today." As someone who doesn't go to college, doesn't have a job and has no means of transport, this is something that's been happening a lot recently so I thought for my sake and for the sake of others, I'm going to make a list of things you can do to try and be a bit more motivated.

Now I'm going to tell you ways of getting yourself off that sofa and doing something a bit more productive, you'll need to start off with baby steps though:

• Playing video games, reading a book and writing can actually be really motivational, you may have no motivation to get out of bed but if you do any of these things, I suppose you're achieving something whether it's meaningful or not.
• Start a blog, that's what I did. Again, this is something that some people may not think is exactly motivational but it's something to be proud of if it becomes successful. I try my hardest to do blog posts almost daily (depending on my mood) and if I complete 5 or 6 blog posts in a week I feel like I've achieved something.
• Set yourself a list of chores. So you may be sat there thinking 'why would I do that, I hate housework'. Yes, that may be, but if you complete a list of chores you will often be rewarded in doing so. Receiving rewards and praise is a great way of becoming more motivated.
• Think positively. If you're not thinking positively, you're going to be in a slump all day which isn't going to help with your motivation problem. If you think positively, you're going to be much more pleased if you do something productive with your day.
• Make a playlist. Make a playlist of songs that make you happy and make you want to dance around your room all day. That way you're going to be getting yourself out of bed. Music can also help when doing housework, I find doing chores much easier if I have music playing really loudly, haha. For me, it's extremely cheesy 80's pop songs.
• Get into a routine. Set yourself a time to wake up, get up, have breakfast, get ready and get on with things that need to be done.
• Don't be disheartened. If you're reading this now and thinking 'YES I'M GOING TO DO ALL THE THINGS TOMORROW' and you wake up and feel awful, don't be disheartened, there's always tomorrow. Things like this take time to get used to if you've been lacking motivation for a while. Start off easy like reading a book and work your way up to going out and doing the weekly shop or whatever.
• Exercise. You get on that Wii Fit board that's been hiding away in the cupboard for months or whack out the Zumba waistband and you do those dances. Exercise is a great way to become more motivated. Things like Zumba are great because it's fun and you're making your body feel better.
• Don't sleep too much or too little. I can't say anything about sleeping too little. I'm the worst at the step. I get to sleep at around 5am and then wake up at 2:30pm and there's the majority of my day gone. If you're like me and just can't sleep, taking 3/4 of a Nytol tablet will knock you out within 15 minutes and you don't wake up with the Nytol hangover. If you're to take a full tablet before bed, be warned, you will wake up with all the symptoms of a hangover in the morning,