This is very difficult, I want to be active but can’t do anything(apart from exercise).
It is unbearable! I can’t do anything.
Exercising is great in itself. So what do you want to do? Any ideas? Maybe try something super small that you know you can accomplish. Do you run only two miles a day well maybe bump it up to three…that sort of thing.
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I want to do chess.
I now managed to solve a couple of ( easy) puzzles.
And this is an idea, to solve easy puzzles( not just for me).
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You’re already doing something. This is great 
!
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That’s doing 100% more than you previously thought of doing nothing. Good job!
See you can do things 
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Try a 20 minute walk. I put headphones in and take my dog. When I don’t feel like doing it for me I do it for him, and it makes me happy.
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@Erez_Shmerling
why do you feel you can do nothing? is it motivation or that feeling of stuck, frozen, or does everything feel hard? I have same problem, but for all these reasons. I can relate. When my illness is acute it can be reallly bad. \sorry you go through this, you arent alone.
I do make myself do what i can, i am forced, to keep my family and my marriage alive. So after that i’m done, toast. I don’t like people in my life telling me that its ok when I only do those few things - because I don’t want to be like this. Because i feel like a shell of who i once was.
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I also feel like a shell of who I should be.
You see it’s a problem.
I can do some things, but not what I want.
It is difficult. My functioning is impaired. And I can’t do what I want to do.
In the end I do something. Because I’m an active person.
But I can’t do what I want, and my life feels like a waste of a life.
You should understand that I’m not a pampered person and I don’t like to complain.
But I can’t help it.
I desperately want an improvement in my functioning, a real cure.
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I’m exactly the same way. It is a part of the “negative symptoms” of schizophrenia. I’ve learned to live with it, but there are times when I think I should be doing so much more. Reminds me of a line from a Willie Nelson song - “I could cry for the time I wasted / But that would be a waste of time and tears”. You’re not alone.
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I hear you @Erez_Shmerling big time.
yeah i was known as an optimist and problem solver, now i complain. I detest all those kinds of tings that changed for who i present to be as a person… cause they aren’t actually me.
I can relate, it’s not that i do nothing at all… every day it can be different what i do (thanks for sharing im not alone in that), and i do what i can stir up the courage to do something - but its not what i want to do. maybe i do 3 loads of laundry but cant even shower or eat beucase its overwhelming lol wtf. i think that beucase i was once an active person that helps me. try to remember that who you present to be is not who you are. i try to remember that the things i WANT to do reflect who i am, compared to the things i don’t do / cant do, are more reflective of the illness.
Can you help me out and see my question in the previous post, on what seems to stop you? all the things listed are what affect me and my abilities. I wondered if its the same kinda thing. it helps when i can relate… like maybe understand the kinds of things others go through.
I hear people call all this negative symptoms (which are terms that are fairly new to me but fit exactly what i didn’t know what was happening). i am hoping that i can get some relief from a new med some day for this - so i do not seem like and feel like a ‘waste of life’ to my family.
The fact that you are putting this out there says something, that you havent forgotten who you re and you are trying, probably fighting this somehow. I consider that strength. this is illness, i keep trying to understand that who i am is seperate from my suffering, hard though when i feel like a shell of who i was.
opps theres a ramble. i tend to do that. anyhow thanks for posting this thread and thanks for sharing and listening. take good care
I will answer you. For me it is mostly the cognitive problems, and to some degree sleep problems.
I feel stuck but not for lack of trying.
Sometimes I have situations where I feel completely frozen, not able to do ANYTHING.
Yes I have that situation rather often where I do nothing because I am frozen and stuck.
But moreover I have serious cognitive problems. So even when I try to do things that I want, like solving chess puzzles,
it goes rather bad(and much worse than in the past). I don’t even try to study or hold a job because the chance is zero
(even though I studied very well in the past).
But I am clear that this is not me, that I’m ill and as you said this is important.
Because in order to solve the problem you first have to identify it.
And I hope for us and others suffering from this condition that more effective treatments emerge for cognitive and negative
symptoms.( to Insightseeker)
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I think the first part of change is awareness.
Jayster
@Erez_Shmerling yeah if I try to do cognitive stuff it ends up being so hard I get irritable and overwhelmed. I can’t act on stage etc. Can’t work (not at all possible) or study or volunteer either. Thanks again for sharing. Just always wobdering if there r other that feel stuck and stuff.