If you’re low

If your mood is low, please read the care note first. After it you’ll find small things to do in the next hour, what to tell your doctor, and the pages on this site most worth your time.

What a low stretch can feel like

A low mood often shows up in ordinary places. The coffee goes cold on the counter because drinking it felt like one more thing to do. The mail piles up on the hall table, and a call you meant to return last Tuesday is still waiting. You can get through the day fine and still feel tired of being the one who always gets through it.

You might be in a long grief, a gray stretch with no clear cause, or a morning that won’t get started. You might also have a prescription in the cupboard and mixed feelings about it. Any decision about that medicine stays with you and your doctor. If you feel a little clearer after reading, that’s welcome, and your care plan still stays as it is. If you feel worse, please reach out to a person instead of handling it alone.

Depression is a common medical illness, and it’s treatable at any age. A few weeks of feeling low doesn’t always mean depression, and only a doctor can tell you which it is. This page gives you some steps that help on hard days whatever the cause, and it shows you how to bring the question to someone who can answer it.

Small things to do in the next hour

When you’re low, the best plan is a small one for the next hour, because the whole week can look impossible from where you are. Pick one or two of these and leave the rest:

• Drink a full glass of water and eat something small at the table, even a piece of toast or a handful of crackers.
• Open a curtain or step out onto the front step for five minutes. Daylight and a little air are worth more than they sound.
• Wash your face, or change into a clean, soft shirt. Small acts of care for your body can ease the feeling that the day has already gone wrong.
• Send one text to one person: “Rough day here. No need to reply, I just wanted to tell someone.”
• Write one task on an index card, something you could manage on a bad day, like “Call the pharmacy about the refill,” and do only that.

When a harsh voice in your head calls these steps pointless, answer it the way you’d answer a tired friend: “It’s a hard day, and I’m doing what I can.” You don’t have to believe it fully. The sample pamphlet talking with yourself gently when low has more sentences like that one, and how to use them.

What to tell your doctor

If you’ve felt low most days for two weeks or more, tell your doctor. You don’t need to know what it means first. Describe your days in your own words, and bring a few specifics, because they help your doctor far more than “I’ve been a bit down.”

Useful things to mention include changes in sleep (waking at 4 and staying awake, or sleeping much more than usual), changes in appetite, losing interest in things you used to enjoy, feeling slowed down or restless, and trouble concentrating. You might say, “I used to do the crossword every morning, and I haven’t touched it since spring.” Or, “Most days I feel heavy until about noon, and it’s been going on for a month.”

Write your questions on a card before the visit and take it with you. If you’re unsure about a medicine you already take, write that down too: “I’m not sure this is helping. What are my options?” Then talk it over together, and keep taking it as prescribed in the meantime. Talk with your clinician helps you get ready for the appointment, and questioning the medicine helps you put your doubts into questions.

Where to read next on this site

Pick the page that sounds like your week and leave the others for another day. One page is plenty.

1. The depression room

   The longer page is depression. It explains what depression is, how it’s treated, and what helps alongside care. It is not yet medically reviewed either. Read it when you want more.

2. Pages for your situation

   • Heavy mornings is for days that feel heavy before you’re out of bed, with a plan for the first 15 minutes.
   • Widowhood is about grief after losing a spouse, with no timetable for feeling better.
   • After a loss and the anniversary of a loss cover grief and the dates that bring it back.
   • Empty nest is about the house after the children have grown and gone.
   • Rainy Sundays is about a long gray afternoon and the low mood that comes with it.
   • Nights with the phone is about late scrolling that leaves you lower than when you started.

3. Short answers

   The depression FAQ answers common questions for this room. The Site FAQ explains why feeling better after reading is never a reason to stop an antidepressant on your own. The glossary defines depression, on this site and adjunct to care, which means alongside professional help.

If the small steps don’t help

Some days the water and the open curtain won’t make a dent, and that’s normal. On those days, lower the bar. Water, one bite of food, and moving from the bed to the armchair with a blanket and the radio on are enough for a day. Try a second start later: if 8 o’clock got away from you, set a timer for 11 and try one step again.

If most days stay heavy no matter what you try, take that to your doctor as information. It may mean the low mood needs more than a routine can give. Treatment often takes some adjusting, and the first plan isn’t always the last one, so going back to say “this isn’t working yet” is part of care.

What a better week can look like

Improvement in a low mood is usually small and uneven. A better week might mean you ate breakfast at the table four mornings out of seven, or the heaviness lifted by 10 instead of by lunch. It might mean you returned the call you’d been putting off. One bad day in the middle doesn’t cancel the good ones.

If you’d like a record, give your mood a number from 1 to 10 each morning and write it on a wall calendar. After two weeks you’ll have a page your doctor can read in a minute, and it will remind you of the better days when your mind insists nothing has changed.

Learn more from trusted sources

These public health agencies explain depression, how it’s treated, and how it can look later in life.

• Depression from the National Institute of Mental Health covers the signs, the causes, and the treatments that help.
• Depression and older adults from the National Institute on Aging describes what depression can look like after 50 and how it is treated.
• The SAMHSA National Helpline is a free, confidential line that can point you to treatment and support services near you.

If you need care

If you’re not safe, leave this page now and call or text 988 in the United States. You don’t need a good reason or the right words, and a real person can stay on the line with you. Outside the United States, call your local emergency number or a local crisis line. If you wake up confused, weak on one side, or unable to find your words, call 911.

The other paths, including loneliness, are on If you’re new here.