7 Simple Ideas to Boost Your Low Energy When Depressed

Depression can bring out the worst in you, even the parts you didn’t know existed until now. It’s not an easy road to recovery when we talk about depression. With symptoms such as lack of motivation, lack of pleasure, lack of emotional availability, lack of energy, and more, depression can bring you down every day and leave you with little to no hope of recovery. One of the major symptoms of depression that I still struggle with from time to time is decreased energy or low energy.

Whenever I feel my depression returning, the first sign I need to watch out for is the fatigue and low energy. When depression’s low energy hits, it can trap you in a vicious cycle of not seeing your loved ones, not talking to them, not doing anything other than breathing, oversleeping, overeating, and more – everything that can worsen the depression.

Since depression is one of the most common mental health disorders, it’s important to take the impact the symptoms leave on you, seriously. Because of the toll depression takes on your body, mind, and other aspects of life, it can be hard to work on yourself. This low energy caused by depression is different from the general fatigue you feel on stressful days.

When you experience depression fatigue, it can affect your mood and make you sensitive to everything that needs energy.

So, what can you do when you’re low on energy and depressed? Are there any remedies for depression and tiredness when they come together?

I have some simple ideas and strategies you can follow to boost your low energy when depressed side-by-side with professional treatment and therapy.

Tips to Boost Energy When Depressed

Depression’s lack of energy can be caused by many factors including genes, situational factors, and even chemical imbalances in the brain. These simple ideas and strategies can act as natural remedies to help boost energy when you’re depressed;

1.Change Your Diet

One aspect of life depression can wreck is your eating habits and patterns. You may experience loss of appetite or gain appetite. Sometimes, you would want to skip meals. While it’s normal in depression, it can cause low energy. So, when you are struggling with depression and low energy, consider changing your diet.

Certain foods can improve your health and even help treat depression while certain foods can worsen the symptoms.

Here are some foods you can try that will help you boost your depressed low energy;

• Zinc-rich foods such as oysters, beef, chickpeas, and cashews
• Complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, oats, nuts, and beans
• Omega-3 rich food such as salmon, walnut, and chia seeds
• Antioxidant foods such as dark chocolate, kale, blueberries
• Vitamin rich food such as milk, eggs, cereals, legumes, green leafy vegetables, broccoli, grains

2.Exercise as Much as You Can

When you’re depressed and tired, then it can affect the production of endorphins, one of our happy hormones. To feel better, relieve pain, and boost energy, we need endorphins. To release endorphins, you need to exercise as much as you can. I get it that when you’re already low on energy, the will to exercise is simply not there.

However, you can start small and build your way up from there. You can consider exercises such as walking, jogging, swimming, or even gentle movement exercises such as tai chi or yoga. Go at your own pace and don’t rush yourself.

If you’re still low on energy, you can ask a loved one to accompany you or join you on your exercise routine. Just a 5-10 minute exercise every day can be good for boosting your depressed low energy.

3.Build a Healthy Sleep Routine

Depression can also affect your sleep routine and lack of sleep can be a major trigger of low energy and depression fatigue. To boost depression and low energy, you need to build a healthy sleep routine.

Try to make sure that your bedroom does not have any artificial lighting or lights from electronic screens. Using electronic devices before bedtime can affect the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Our devices emit blue light that can affect the natural production of melatonin.

You can also try to practice gentle evening exercises to relax your body for better sleep. It’s also recommended that you avoid consuming heavy meals, alcohol, and caffeine before bed as these habits can also affect your sleep.

When you sleep well (we’re talking about quality sleep here), you’ll have better energy in the morning and will wake up in a good mood.

4.Consider Meditation

When you don’t have any energy and are struggling with depressive negative thoughts, then I get it; spending time in your head is the last thing you would want to do. However, studies have shown that meditation and mindfulness exercises can help you reduce the worries floating in your mind.

Mindfulness and meditation practices are a good way to ease depressive symptoms and even restore some of the lost energy. Just 10–15 minutes spent on meditation can help improve your mood and boost your energy.

If you need help, here are some meditation apps you can try to begin your meditation journey.

5.Do Something You Truly Enjoy

When I’m low on energy caused by depression, I don’t feel like getting up in the morning, much less doing something productive. But, I’ve also noticed that when I do get up from the bed and do something I like and enjoy (even if it is making myself a cup of tea), I restore a little of my energy.

It is believed that doing something you like can help you feel better and even increase your energy. This kind of behavioral activity is considered one of the most effective approaches to therapy and can help ease depressive symptoms as well as any cognitive therapy or approach can.

All you need to do is integrate some of the behaviors that you enjoy doing into your routine. You can call a friend or text them about some random thing, you can play your favorite song and slowly dance to the tunes, or you can do little things like watching the sunrise, making a good breakfast, etc. to boost your energy.

6.Consider CBT

One of the best and most effective cognitive approaches is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Commonly known as CBT, this approach focuses on identifying patterns that are causing troubles in your life and using practical skills to bring change. CBT is considered one of the best approaches to treating depression and tiredness.

If you feel like this approach would be good for you to treat depression fatigue, then you can consider speaking with a therapist who specializes in CBT.

7.Or, Seek Professional Support

Sometimes, doing little things may not help as you’d expect them to and that’s OK. Just know that when that happens, you can consider reaching out to a professional therapist or counselor.

If your depression symptoms persist for more than two weeks and if you notice your symptoms getting worse (for example, you feel no energy or if you are constantly running on low energy), then it is strongly recommended that you seek professional help and support.

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Low energy or lack of energy is a major symptom of depression that can affect the other aspects of your life. With the right help, ideas, and strategies, you can learn to counter the lack of energy caused by depression and boost your mood. When you’re experiencing depression, it can be hard to see the bright side or wish for a happy outcome, however, when you try little you gain little.

These above-mentioned tips can help ease your depressive symptoms and even help say goodbye to the depression and low energy you’re experiencing. If you’re still struggling with a lack of energy or depression fatigue, consider speaking to a mental health professional.

If you found this article helpful or wish to add more tips, then write to us at info@calmsage.com or leave a comment in the section below and we’ll try our best to add your recommendations to the article.

Take care.