Question for those with depression

Thank you all for the advice. I didn't think I'd get so much support so quickly.

I should've mentioned it in my first post, but I've had depression and generalized anxiety disorder for almost 11 years now. I've been on a lot of different medications and have seen many therapists, all to no avail.

My plan is to workout at home using DVD's or videos online.

Besides being overwhelmed, I'm easily discouraged, because I've already lost 50 lbs, but I'm unable to maintain the level of activity that I used to do (strength 3x/week, intense cardio 5-6x/week) due to bad knees and sciatica. Even walking for a measly 20 minutes is too much on some days. I feel like I'll never be able to lose anymore weight with such low-impact exercise and that it's pointless to keep trying.

Overcoming depression and anxiety is hard. Actually I don't know if you ever really overcome it, but you can learn to live with it.

You say depression in your topic, but then mention anxiety in your post. Two different things that often go together. My first answer is what worked for me. I won't put it here because it generally starts a big debate, I'll just say that it's in my profile.

Depression sucks. Literally and figuratively. It sucks the desire to do anything out of you. Unfortunately, beyond medication, the best treatment for depression it so to something. Which, of course is circular, because the depression is making it hard (nearly impossible) to do something. With the help of a friend, who texted me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to encourage me, I went and walked. 10 minutes out, turned around and 10 minutes back. At that time that was about the only thing I could do. Now I'm doing it on my own, and for 45 minutes to an hour. Basically, you have to force yourself. You will find that sometimes doing something doesn't come from motivation. Motivation comes from doing something.

Anxiety is usually caused by an irrational fear. Often we don't even know what it is. If you feel anxious about exercising, there is (probably) some irrational thought in your mind that is telling you something bad will happen if you exercise. "Something bad" is a pretty broad area. Whatever that is, you need to figure out. It's not always easy. Think about it and see what you can come up with. Then start to challenge that irrational thought with rational thoughts. Again not always easy. This is where a friend or a counselor can help you. They can help you both identify the thought, and then come up with rational counter-thoughts. One trick here is repetition. I've used signs and posters with phrases that counter my irrational thinking. Putting them up where I see them often, my brain sees them and gradually the rational thought will start to over come the irrational thought.

I barely touched on medicine. Frankly, I personally am not to enamored with state of mental health care these days. Mostly because I did a lot of talking and took a lot of medication and made very, very little progress. I will not, however, suggest that you don't seek out a doctor or therapist. Medication and therapy work well for a lot of people. It just didn't do much for me.

Without knowing more detail there isn't much more to say. Get up and do something. Make yourself if you have to. Identify and challenge those irrational thoughts. Go slow. Pushing yourself to hard will often times cement the irrational thoughts, not help you challenge them.

Hope some of this helps anyway. Feel free to message or friend me if you want to talk more. I've been dealing with these things pretty much all my life. I'm certainly no doctor, or expert. Just a guy on the internet. But I do have some experience in the matter.