Inertia and Gravity as applied to Mental Health

Depression's like a big fur coat; it's made of dead things but it keeps me warm. ~Icon for Hire
I don't miss you; I miss the misery. ~Halestorm

Growth is hard. Change is hard. But nothing's as hard as staying somewhere you don't belong. ~Mandy Hale

There's something unexplicably comfortable about staying where you are, even if it's a toxic wasteland. It's kind of like Newton's first law of motion: Things want to keep doing what they're doing (also known as inertia). The thing about inertia is that it works both ways: once you start moving and start making progress, it gets easier to keep going.

When I first moved back into my parents' house after my divorce I experienced a phenomenon I've since dubbed couch gravity. I slept on the couch. I sat on the couch on my laptop when awake. I didn't leave that couch, basically ever. I found the simple task of getting up to eat exhausting. Some days I'd wake up determined to do something, but getting off of the couch was breaking my pattern, even though it was a pattern I wanted to break.

I still struggle with couch gravity. I'll walk into my room to grab something and find myself flaked out on the bed an hour later. But it's no longer a daily struggle to get up and moving in the morning. (Some days, but not nearly every day). Progress takes time, but it happens, and, as my support people keep reminding me, we need to celebrate the small victories. That's how you keep your movement inertia to reach the big ones.

Keep celebrating, keep moving forward, and keep getting off the couch.