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[THREAD] I want to talk about decision making. It is one of the things that we don’t think about much. We make many decisions everyday. However, when our mental health is not doing well, making decisions becomes a huge challenge. Let’s explore why that happens and what we can do!
The reason why it becomes harder to make decisions is because anxiety and depression take up so much of our mental energy, that even small amounts of energy needed to make decisions is no longer there. It becomes debilitating and something that can take a long time.
Furthermore, when we are anxious, possibilities and many choices make decision making harder. We tend to overthink the issue and spend hours making those decisions even when the outcomes won’t signify big changes. That dread can quickly lead to panic attacks and increased anxiety
Even things as simple as what to eat for our meal, what clothes to buy, who to answer in social media or texts, etc...becomes huge challenges, ones that can lead us to stop making those decisions or postpone them indefinitely or we outsource them to others to lessen the load.
However, there are a few things that we can do to help us out during those difficult moments. One is to keep pros and cons lists for more meaningful decisions. It helps keep a logical perspective for our decision and becomes easier.
Another thing we can do is lessen the number of decisions we have to make. We reduce our goals and expectations to match our energy level. For example, tomorrow the only decision I have to make is take a shower and eat. That’s it. The rest of the time will be to rest.
We can slowly increase the number of goals and decisions as we get used to them and slowly start to feel better. Another thing we can do is to prep our food or have loved ones help us with that to reduce some of those everyday decisions.
It is important to balance lessening the load of our decisions with not becoming avoidant. It can be easy to simply avoid making decisions in order not to feel stressed out about them, but that can be harmful long term. It is important to lessen them when we are not doing well,
without completely avoiding them. It is important to realize that we can’t force ourselves too much. When we do that, we are likely to feel resistance and exhaustion from our minds, so it is better to go back and make small decisions and slowly increase them.
Sometimes, decision making is there because there is a huge decision we need to make that is looming over us whether that’s related to work, school, relationships. If you feel overwhelmed with this, please externalize by talking about it or journaling and get support.
This way you are not alone with this looming decision and can feel like you have people helping you. Otherwise, it can easily turn into anxiety. Please make sure to take care of yourself and reduce your load, especially in this pandemic with our mental health not doing well.
I hope that helps you a little bit when it comes to decision making and some tips that you can implement. Hope you are all well 
