I'm not sure I agree with this. I'd like to hear how all that stuff--getting up, working, etc.--is positive if, in fact, I am miserable all the time. If it doesn't help me feel better in any way. I stayed in bed this morning until 11, and that felt better. No work, no responsibilities of any kind.
Try not doing it for a month. Or even a week. Or even possibly just imagine… Piss/shit in the bed, don’t eat or drink or bathe or read or do ANYTHING… except lay there.
I’ve had enough severe medical issues in my life ^^^that^^^ WAS my life. For months at a time. Where even “just” being able to go to the bathroom? Was the ONE major accomplishment of the day. And then my 6 accomplishments of the day. And months, sometimes years, longer before “all that stuff” could even be attempted, much less maintained so easily I didn’t think anything of them, instead of fighting for every inch. They’re VERY good things. That most healthy people? Totally discount. (Disqualifying the positive).
Similarly? I’ve been depressed enough that the ONLY thing I could do was get up to use the bathroom, drink out of the faucet, and go back to bed. A week of that makes using the loo & drinking seem like, Pfft. Whatever! (Disqualifying the positive).
Yep!!! They are either scraping the bottom of the barrel (being physically able to take care of yourself), or the goal of virtually everyone on disability/unable to work (so we’ll say something more midline in the whole being human thing). UNTIL? You don’t have them & cant, no matter how much you want them. Then? They’re climbing Everest and winning the lottery amaaaaaazing GOOD things.
Being physically & financially capable of taking care of yourself? Doesn’t mean a person won’t kill themselves in despair. Totally self sufficient people are often in so much pain they kill themselves all the time, whilst people shitting their bed are fighting to live, and finding great joy in their life.
The URGE to disqualify the positive, however? This doesn’t count, that only counts for other people, etc… Is a daaaaangerous place to be in. A warning sign that I’m not dealing with reality as it is, but deliberately/unconsciously making myself even more miserable, on top of any/all legit misery. Like you’ve probably seen (or experienced) people in anxiety attacks feeding their anxiety until they’re panic attacks and then feeding their panic until it’s a psychotic break. SPINNING themselves up further & further & further… until they break.
Disqualifying the positive is much the same; shredding yourself, until you gut yourself, until psychotic &/or suicidal break.
It’s less about it will make you feel better (usually won’t!) and more about NOT feeling even worse.
A lot like HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) makes everything worse, as does low oxygen if you have asthma, or low blood sugar if you’re hypoglycemic, or spinning yourself up / catastrophizing with anxiety… being unable to recognize the good whilst overwhelmed &/or sliding into a depression, or deeper into one.
I often think of a lot of CDs as grabbing hold of reality with both hands, and hanging on for dear life… instead of throttling it.
