What To Do When Depression Makes It Impossible To Get Out of Bed? A Clinical Psychology Podcast Episode.
- Connor Whiteley
- Mar 31
- 8 min read
With depression being one of the most common mental health conditions in the world, a lot of a clinical psychologist’s workload will be supporting people with depression. A common depression symptom is what’s known as “Leaden Paralysis” and one of the effects of the symptoms is that everyday tasks take a million times more energy to complete. This can make the “simple” task of getting out of bed feel impossible for people with depression. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what is leaden paralysis, why leaden paralysis impacts people’s mental health and what to do when depression makes it impossible to get out of bed. If you enjoy learning about mental health, Major Depressive Disorder and psychotherapy then this will be a great episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode is sponsored by CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Depression. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Note: nothing on this podcast is ever any sort of official medical, mental health, relationship or any other form of advice.
What is The Weight of Depression?
If you’ve ever experienced depression then you might be aware that there are some days where your depression will weigh you down so much that it feels like your body is made of lead and concrete. This makes the very notion of doing anything, much less leave your bed feel flat out impossible. As well as the sheer weight of depression might make you cancel plans, spend more time at home and/ or you might miss or be late for work.
This weight of depression and a struggle to get out of bed can take a massive toll on your work, relationships and your quality of life.
Personally, during August until October 2024 when I had quite severe depression, it always took me about two hours to get out of bed in the morning. Getting out of bed just felt hard because I had fun things to do, I could see my friends and everything but it wasn’t good enough motivation to actually want to get out of bed. I just wanted the day to be over so I could sleep and I didn’t have to deal with all the trauma responses that I was having every single hour of every single day.
What Is Leaden Paralysis?
As a result, there is a symptom of depression called “leaden paralysis” that causes people with depression to experience a severe drop in energy and as Qi et al. (2020) highlights this makes everyday tasks a million times harder for the individual. This is important to bear in mind because a lot of people who have never experienced depression or severe depression before might argue that people should just get up. Yet it isn’t that easy. And this is one of the reasons why depression is a leading cause of disability round the world (Friedrich, 2017).
One of the clearest examples for me of leaden paralysis was on the very first day of my severe depression when it took me 5 hours just to have a shower. After struggling to get up for two or three hours, I managed to eventually make breakfast and at midday I decided to try to have a shower. Yet everything felt so heavy, I was so drained, I had no energy and my body might as well have had 20kg kettlebells tied to it.
It took so long to go through the living room, up the stairs, grab my towel and clothes, go across the landing, go into the bathroom, undressed, etc, etc.
Every one of those steps felt so impossible and each one took so long.
That is what leaden paralysis is like and that’s why supporting people with depression is so important. You can probably imagine but having leaden paralysis doesn’t make you feel great and it can make you feel even worse about yourself as your quality of life starts to crumble, so this is why mental health support is critical.
What To Do When Depression Makes It Impossible To Get Out Of Bed?
Here are three strategies to help people with depression overcome leaden paralysis and get out of bed in the mornings.
Firstly, you can break the day down into “hoops”. This strategy involves breaking down your day into sections then you visualise these tasks as hoops. For example, getting up or brushing your teeth can be seen as two hoops that need to be conquered. After completing each task, you could imagine yourself jumping through each hoop and this can be an encouraging visual so you get a sense of achievement, and it helps to make the day less overwhelming. As well as on the really difficult days, seeing tasks as hoops can help you determine what tasks or hoops can be done on other days.
Secondly, you need to try to be kind to yourself because one of the ways how depression impacts us is makes us criticise ourselves more often. Therefore, to define your depression and how it criticizes you every chance it gets, you might want to practise self-kindness by using compassionate words when you realise your self-dialogue is getting more negative and harsher.
For example, today is actually a good example for me because my mental health definitely dipped today, and I was tired, overwhelmed and I was anxious about seeing my partner tomorrow because of trauma responses. My partner has done nothing wrong by the way. This meant I didn’t get up for over an hour this morning and when I had a nap in the late afternoon in an effort to make myself feel better, I napped for 40 minutes but I didn’t get out of bed for another two hours.
At first I was judging myself harshly because that was such a waste of time, I had so much to do and on and on and on. But I realised that it’s okay I couldn’t get out of bed earlier because this is what happens when my mental health dips. I need to listen to myself, figure out what’s causing my mental health to dip and just keep going. Things will get better later on or tomorrow and as long as I focus on just going forward then that’s okay. As well as I am hardly alone because this happens to everyone at different times in their life, even more so when you have depression and other mental health difficulties.
This is what works for me, you might need other self-compassionate and self-kindness
thoughts.
The key is to not feed into your depression by criticising and hating yourself because you can’t get out of bed. This will only make it feel even harder to do everyday tasks.
Finally, reach out for mental health support, because if you’re experiencing depression that is so severe you find it really difficult to get out of bed. It is important that you seek mental health support as soon as possible because if you don’t get support then your symptoms might get worse and your risk of suicide and self-harm increase. I really don’t want that for you. As well as your depression might make you want to be alone and isolate yourself, but when you’re struggling, it is a really good idea to be surrounded by other people. These people can include friends and family, but make sure you reach out to mental health professionals like a therapist or a mental health helpline too. Since if you isolate yourself then you might quickly find yourself in an echo chamber surrounded by your negative thoughts and inactivity and this
will only maintain your depression.
And make you feel worse and worse until you don’t see another way out.
Whenever I go through depression and mental health difficulties, reaching out to mental health support is always the best thing I could have done. It is always nerve-racking, I try to put it off as long as possible and I try to deal with things on my own at first. Yet ultimately seeing a counsellor, therapist or another form of mental health support is always best and I grow and develop so much and I flat out love the process too.
Clinical Psychology Conclusion
Whether you’re a aspiring or qualified psychologist or person with depression, we’ve learnt a lot during today’s psychology podcast episode. For psychologists, a lot of our future work will be with people with depression and we will encounter leaden paralysis the majority of the time because it is a common symptom. I know as someone who has experienced the inability to get out of bed frequently in the past, this is very distressing, it makes you feel awful about yourself and it can play into suicidal thoughts. Especially, when every single other everyday task seems to require so much effort that your quality of life just crumbles and is reduced to nothing.
This is why learning about strategies to support clients with leaden paralysis is so important.
For people with depression, I hope you now have some strategies to help you get out of bed in the morning and I hope you realise that you aren’t alone. What you’re experiencing is normal for depression and it is a normal response for whatever is causing your difficulties and that’s why talking to a mental health professional is critical.
Here are some questions at the end of this podcast episode:
· Have you ever encountered leaden paralysis before? Either through personal or clinical experience.
· How have you dealt with these experiences of leaden paralysis?
· Do you know how to practise self-kindness?
· How could you learn more about self-kindness?
· What would you say to a loved one and/ or client who struggles to get out of bed in the morning because of their depression?
If you want to learn more, please check out:
CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Depression. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading
Alshehri, T., Mook-Kanamori, D. O., de Mutsert, R., Penninx, B. W., Rosendaal, F. R., le Cessie, S., &
Milaneschi, Y. (2023). The association between adiposity and atypical energy-related symptoms of depression: a role for metabolic dysregulations. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 108, 197-203.
Chae, W. R., Baumert, J., Nübel, J., Brasanac, J., Gold, S. M., Hapke, U., & Otte, C. (2023). Associations between individual depressive symptoms and immunometabolic characteristics in major depression. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 71, 25-40.
Collins, K. A., Eng, G. K., Tural, Ü., Irvin, M. K., Iosifescu, D. V., & Stern, E. R. (2022). Affective and somatic symptom clusters in depression and their relationship to treatment outcomes in the STAR* D sample. Journal of Affective Disorders, 300, 469-473.
Friedrich, M. J. (2017). Depression is the leading cause of disability around the world. Jama, 317(15), 1517-1517.
Guo, Z. P., Chen, L., Tang, L. R., Gao, Y., Qu, M., Wang, L., & Liu, C. H. (2025). The differential orbitofrontal activity and connectivity between atypical and typical major depressive disorder. NeuroImage: Clinical, 45, 103717.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-mental-health/202407/when-it-feels-impossible-to-get-out-of-bed
Qi, B., MacDonald, K., Berlim, M. T., Fielding, A., Lis, E., Low, N., ... & Trakadis, Y. (2020). Balance problems, paralysis, and angina as clinical markers for severity in major depression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 567394.
Vreijling, S. R., Fatt, C. R. C., Williams, L. M., Schatzberg, A. F., Usherwood, T., Nemeroff, C. B., ... &
Lamers, F. (2024). Features of immunometabolic depression as predictors of antidepressant treatment outcomes: pooled analysis of four clinical trials. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 224(3), 89-97.
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