Originally Posted by
Jason Donaldson
A few thoughts for you, Caleb:
1) Satisfaction is proportional to outcome over expectations. This is important to keep consciously in mind. It's a principle for dealing with other parties, but it's at least as important with dealing with one's self. The more tightly you can manage that denominator, the better.
2) In your depressive phases in particular, do you experience anhedonia? This could be an outworking of that. Discipline and sticking with healthful routine despite that is essential to managing it.
3) It's a common refrain here, but I'll echo others in the thread on getting your testosterone checked. I have fought depression most of my life, and I can say without question both that low T attacks very, very much like depression, and that TRT helps with it just as fast as Rip says it does. It doesn't make it go away, per se...but it makes you able to take hold of it and thrive in the face of it.
4) A common thread here is agency. Taking up agency over all these things is what's indicated. Feelings are often the enemy of agency.
5) Dreading the next workout is not abnormal, but a sign of progress and of opportunity. It's getting hard. It's getting heavy. Good. This is where you decide to become strong. Right now. Right here. Every time.