I'm worried that I'm becoming depressed.

[wellnesszing]

The situation you are going through is quite common with people of middle age. This is the stage of life when you are financially stable and have family, house, money, etc. With these luxuries come the inevitable responsibilities. These responsibilities include earning livelihood, maintaining lifestyle, caring and raising children, office work pressure, business grown stress, etc. Even if you do not recognize them they are there lying in your subconscious mind. This is the reason you are not enjoying movies and films with the pressure free mind as you would when you were young.


You try to free yourself off from certain extra responsibilities. It may be clearing a loan, avoiding extra work pressure in office, stopping unnecessary expectations from friend sand relatives, etc. The key here is to reduce the added burden on your mind and live a relaxed and stress free life.


This is the only way you can enjoy things you love.



Additionally you can resort to meditation and Yoga to make yourself stress free.

[Nov3]

My grandma called it emotional hibernation.
I've personally had this slow transformation of indifference towards some former passions. Found out that it wasn't depression . It was moreso that I was not attached to material things or habits that were mindless activity.
What brought me forward was physical activity. Walking . Getting out in nature (yes even on dreary rainy days!). I do enjoy a cup.of tea afterwards. Try to get your body in motion. Take up bowling, or tennis. Do good deeds. Volunteer. Twice a month I drag this old figure to a habitate for humanity event. Volunteer. And meet different people.
That's my tidbit of ideas...make a difference

[zentropa]

Originally Posted by Nov3

My grandma called it emotional hibernation.
I've personally had this slow transformation of indifference towards some former passions. Found out that it wasn't depression . It was moreso that I was not attached to material things or habits that were mindless activity.
What brought me forward was physical activity. Walking . Getting out in nature (yes even on dreary rainy days!). I do enjoy a cup.of tea afterwards. Try to get your body in motion. Take up bowling, or tennis. Do good deeds. Volunteer. Twice a month I drag this old figure to a habitate for humanity event. Volunteer. And meet different people.
That's my tidbit of ideas...make a difference

A lot of older guys enjoy pickleball too.

[Forever Blue]

Originally Posted by asylumaniac

...I've asked for advice from my dad and I don't think that he's much help. He simply said that growing more depressed and cynical is something that happens to everyone as they get older and that I'm just going to have to live with it. That doesn't seem like a satisfying enough answer for me and now I just want to know what's wrong with me.

What your dad says is definintely NOT true at all. ALL people definintely don't get depressed about life as they get older. I sure in heck don't & the way my life is, I could be depressed & lonely, but I'm not. In fact, you may want to read my post #33 that I just posted over in this thread to see why I could very easily be depressed & lonely about life:

http:////www.city-data.com/forum/men...-lonely-4.html

Originally Posted by asylumaniac

That’s part of the problem. When I’m not working, I usually just find myself either lying in bed or just mindlessly browsing the internet and playing on my phone with no real purpose.

Speaking on the whole TV thing, I've always loved TV since I was a child & still do. I'm glad I never stopped liking it. It's one of life's simple pleasures to me. Throughout my life, I've always had my list of shows I watched regularly. I like movies too & went quite a lot pre-COVID, but believe it or not, I still haven't stepped foot in a theatre since right before things 1st shut down in March 2020 & surprisingly, I haven't missed going to the movies as much as I thought I would. I'm sure someday, I'll go back again, but just not sure when that will be.

I love getting online too. I like posting on discussion boards & watching Youtube vids. I also look up info about various things or typing emails to a few email pals (I've never met in person).

Do you have friends you like to spend time w/? Are you passionate about anything? I wouldn't say I'm truly passionate about something. There are just things I enjoy doing, such as:

TV/movie-watching
e-biking
going online
going to boookstores & browsing through magazines
having a dog, which I don't have since mine died 8 yrs ago
makeup/cosmetics (which I stopped wearing since COVID hit)
grocery & retail shopping
going to museums & certain other interesting places
going on drives (especially since COVID started
getting takeout at new restaurants as well as eating good food.

Just like I said to the OP over on the other thread about her lonliness, I honestly don't know what advice to give about how not to be depressed since I've never gone through depression. Since you've felt this way the last few years, I'd say get a therapist to help you by giving you tips & tactics on what to do to improve & how to cope when depression rears its ugly head.

[LongevitySeeker]

I agree with Nov3 that physical activity is good for your mental health. And, I would add, it's good for your physical health too. Whatever is good for your physical health is also good for your mental health.

That's why I would add food. Foods that are good for you physically are also good for your brain. You can search online for "foods that help depression" or "Anti-depressive foods".

The ones I like the most are leafy greens, lettuce, peppers, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Kale, and Brussels sprouts.

Highly processed foods (i.e., manufactured foods) do just the opposite. While you're eating them you might feel happy to be eating something you enjoy, but the long term effect can often be the opposite. So avoid "junk" food.

In my opinion, the absolute worst thing is to take medications. Medications may be needed for someone who is suicidal. In that case it might be a life-saver. But as long as you are not suicidal, healthy foods are the way to go.

Medications work against a healthy foods regimen.