How I Battled Against Depression Fatigue and Won to Take My Girls on a Daddy-Daughter Date!

I am always tired. Well that's not quite true. I am not tired when I want to sleep. I just woke up from a three hour weekend nap. I feel grumpy, partly because I am still tired (I need more of what I got too much of), and partly because I wanted to get some things done, but instead I feel like I just wasted my afternoon. I hate wasting my time. Oh, and I have a headache. But that is nothing new. I don't know if I have migraines, or the amount of anxiety and stress I feel causes a constant tension headache, but I rarely am without a headache. Excedrin is a godsend.  

I decided this weekend I would take my two oldest girls out for a daddy-daughter date. Saturday was my date with Sophia, and Sunday was my date with Mabel.

I normally don't like leaving the house on the weekends. Call it social anxiety or laziness, but it is hard for me to leave the comfort and familiarity of my own home. I had no trouble doing it this weekend, though. It was fun and I'm glad I decided to do that. I hope the girls enjoyed themselves. I'm sure Sophie did. She began planning our second daddy-daughter date even before we left for our first. I'm glad I can spend time with my girls. 

I often do not feel like I am a good father. I tend to lose my patience with my girls. I don't like to play a lot of the games they want me to play. I will play if I have the time, but part of the problem is I don't make the time to play with them. Particularly on the weekends I am so exhausted that it takes so much effort for me to play with them. I love my girls more than anything. I only want them to be happy in life. And one thing that helps me in those moments when I feel like my girls would be better off without me is to think of the moments I created with them like I did this weekend. Even in our worst moods, as difficult as they may be, we can always think of one positive in the area we are feeling depressed over. My girls are going to remember the times I took them out on dates way more than the times I told them I did not want to play. 

Remember, if you have questions, send me an email or comment below. Thank you.

-Brandon

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 5 Books You Need to Read Right Now if You Have Mental Illness

Image
       I love to read! I get up at 4:30 every morning just so I have time to read before work. As someone with depression I find reading stories about other depressives and those with mental illness to be helpful and inspiring. But it can be difficult to find good books discussing biographical details about a person’s mental illness. My purpose in this blog is to tell you about five books everyone with mental illness needs to read. These books are inspiring, comforting, helpful, and encouraging. So, without further ado, here are the five books you need to read right now if you have mental illness.  1.  A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness Written by Nassir Ghaemi, this book looks at the lives of four leaders who suffered with mental illness: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and William Tecumseh Sherman. Ghaemi discusses each of these famous leaders’ mental illness, how their illness presen...
Read more

The Stigma of Depression and All Mental Illness Needs to End Now, and It Ends by Talking About It!

       When others find out I have major depressive disorder, they must look at my life and wonder what reason I have for being depressed. Well, I think that is why they call it mental illness; it comes from totally irrational thinking. If it made sense it would not be an "illness."           I am your typical, middle-class American. I am a man in my late 30s, married for 10 years (at the time of this writing) to an amazing woman. I have three beautiful daughters, and a yellow lab. We live in a medium sized house, which I am proud to call my home. All I am missing is the white picket fence.          I worked as a hospice chaplain for eight years, counseling terminally ill individuals and their families. I graduated law school in 2017 and landed a nice job working for a small law firm as an associate attorney. So what do I have to be depressed about?         Well, when I think ...
Read more