Is procrastinating part of mental health can it be fixed ?

I’m not lazy I know I’m not but I procrastinate sooo much and it destroys me and makes me feel even more anxious and depressed, it’s like I’m stuck in a cycle and I never seem to complete my daily tasks even the very small ones
Asked by Pbom
Answered
06/16/2021

Procrastination can be influenced by both depression and anxiety. Oftentimes when someone is feeling depressed it can feel like even small things feel like an insurmountable task to accomplish. Having a lack of motivation is a symptom of depression and can feel like something as small as washing a coffee cup feel like someone asking you to run a marathon the day after having knee surgery, it just feels impossible. Oftentimes our thoughts like "people will think I'm lazy" can add even more to our poor sense of self worth or thinking that there is something inherently wrong with us, which can then make us feel more depressed and even less motivated. Therapy can help you learn new ways of thinking to help break this cycle, exam some of the automatic thoughts that you are having and look at ways that you can change patterns of behaviors that may be contributing to getting stuck in the cycle of never being able to complete things. 

Similarly, with anxiety when there are so much to do it is hard to know where to start and we can get stuck in our heads not knowing where to start or trying to figure out what the best approach might be that it just all becomes overwhelming and hard to want to start at all. When we get stuck in that cycle it is very easy to feel defeated before we even begin. In these situations it can be really helpful to try to look at things in smaller sections. Imagine that you are looking through a microscope it will only allow you to see one small thing but will keep you focused. There are times we need to focus in on one small thing so that we can get it done and there are other times when we need to look at the bigger picture. When you feel paralyzed with anxiety it is helpful to break things into smaller sections and celebrate the successes. Knowing that you need to clean the whole house can feel very overwhelming and unmanageable, even focusing on one room may feel like too much so focus on one thing in the room. It probably feels better to say I'm going to wash this cup than it does to say I am going to clean this house. Once the cup is washed move to the plate and so on, and give yourself some grace as you do it. Far to many of us also set out to do 10 hours of work on our to do list with only 2 hours allocated and then feel disappointed that we can't do what is quite literally impossible to do. Therapy can be helpful in working to eliminate both depression and anxiety and it just may result in the side effect of changing your procrastination habit too. 

(LMFT, CHC)