Millions of Americans feel depressed at some point. If you’ve experienced a depressive funk, you aren’t alone. In fact, around 8–10% of folks living in the U.S. are diagnosed with clinical depression, but many more experience a depressive episode or a depression funk without formal diagnosis.
These periods of low mood can be intense, exhausting, and hard to shake from. You may notice experiencing low energy, struggling to find motivation, and overall not feeling like yourself.
Getting out of a depressive funk can feel impossible. Yet, there are practical steps you can take to start regulating your mood, easing depressive symptoms, and gradually feeling more like you. Today, I’m sharing a guide to help you get out of a depression funk.
How To Get Out Of Depression Funk
The first step when you feel stuck in life is noticing your mental and emotional state. A funk can sneak in slowly without you realizing that something is not right. One day you feel off, then your stress level rises, your energy drops, and your blood pressure may even spike.
Early recognition helps you respond to these feelings and symptoms sooner. When you work on coping skills right at the onset, you can keep yourself from continuing to slip and prevent a longer depressive episode.
In this post, I’ll cover what it means to be in a funk, how to recognize it, and practical ways to improve your mood.
Further, separating from parts of yourself that pull you into low mood by building self awareness and understanding the messages your body and emotions are trying to send you can help guide you out of these funks.
What Does It Mean to Be In A Funk?
A depression funk is more than a temporary bad mood. Instead, it’s an extended period when your energy, motivation, and overall mental health take a toll. You might feel depressed without meeting criteria for major depressive disorder, but the impact can still be debilitating, keeping you from activities that would normally bring you fulfillment or joy.
During a funk, your mind may default to negative thought patterns, such as beliefs about yourself or the world. While these patterns keep you in a low mood which doesn’t feel great, they may actually be trying to help or protect you.
For instance, thoughts like “I’m in capable, why even bother trying” from a part of you can prevent you from rejection or failure. Likewise, the experience of numbing out emotions or not feeling anything may be your body’s way of protecting you from feeling pain.
Recognizing a funk helps you take action to get in deeper connection with yourself and your needs. You can begin working through difficult emotions, recognizing unhelpful thought patterns, and surrounding yourself with supportive people that make you feel like you.
What Happens When You Are In A Funk?
Here are some common signs of a depression funk:
You Feel Tired Or Have Low Energy
You may feel tired even after a night of “enough” sleep. Small tasks feel overwhelming and daunting.
Fatigue makes it harder to find your passion and motivation and can even keep you from feeling like interacting with loved ones.
Negative Thought Patterns
Your mind may focus on thought patterns that keep you stuck in depressive feelings. Identifying negative thought patterns is essential because these patterns often stem from unconscious beliefs, fears, or past experiences.
Here are some examples of negative thought patterns:
- Negativity Bias – Your brain gives more weight to negative experiences than positive ones, making it harder to recognize the good. Example: Your partner praises you multiple times, but you dwell on the one piece of constructive feedback they gave.
- Confirmation Bias – You seek out and believe information that supports your existing views while ignoring anything that contradicts them. Example: If you think your partner doesn’t care about you, you might only notice times they forget something important, ignoring all the ways they show love.
- Anchoring Bias – Your brain relies too heavily on the first piece of information you receive (the “anchor”), even when more relevant information is available. Example: If your partner once forgot an important date, you might interpret all future forgetfulness as intentional or uncaring, even when most of their actions show thoughtfulness and care.
By recognizing these patterns, we can begin to uncover the hidden wounds, insecurities, or unresolved emotions that drive them. Left unchecked, they shape our behaviors and emotions.
Low Motivation To Spend Time With Loved Ones
During a depressive funk, your energy and drive drop, which impacts your motivation to change up your environment. Tasks that normally feel manageable now feel overwhelming. This includes spending time with family members, friends, or your romantic partner. Your mind may signal, “I can’t handle more right now,” which leads to withdrawal and isolation in the long-term.
This withdrawal can actually be protective. The part of you that pulls back is trying to shield you from additional stress, emotional overwhelm, or potential disappointment. Even though it increases loneliness, its intention is to give you space to recover and protect vulnerable feelings.
When you work to discover the function of low motivation, you can determine other ways to meet underlying needs and reignite your energy.
Changes in Appetite Or Sleep
During a depressive funk, your appetite or sleep patterns may shift. You might skip meals, overeat, sleep too much, or struggle to fall asleep. While these shifts may result in relief in the short term, they can reinforce and worsen depressive symptoms and sap energy in the long-run.
Your body is signaling a need to slow down. A part of you may be trying to conserve energy and shield you from additional stress while your mind and body process low mood.
Increased Stress Level and Blood Pressure
Even a mild funk can raise stress levels and spike blood pressure. Your body reacts as if it’s under threat, preparing for danger even when none is present.
These stuck stress responses can occur when you have experienced trauma or emotionally heightening events that have not been processed.
When stress becomes chronic, cortisol and other stress hormones can get “stuck” in the body. This prolongs the fight-or-flight response and keeps your nervous system on high alert.
Feeling Numb or Disconnected
You may feel emotionally distant from people or even from yourself. This numbness can make you avoid relationships, communication, or activities.
Lack of connection to yourself and your own emotions is a protective mechanism. Your mind is trying to shield vulnerable parts of you from hurt or rejection.
By creating distance between your body, mind, and emotions, it hopes to prevent further emotional pain, even if the strategy also increases isolation in the long-term.
How Do You Get Out Of A Depression Funk?
Here are practical steps to help you break free from a funk:
Move Your Body
Exercise, walk outside, or get fresh air. Movement reduces stress levels, helps regulate your mood, and improves blood pressure. Even ten minutes of activity can lift your energy.
Even if you don’t feel like it, a few minutes of gentle movement each day can help keep your system regulated.
Spend Time With Loved Ones
Reach out to family members, a romantic partner, or a close friend. Connection reduces isolation and provides emotional support.
Sharing a laugh or a conversation can remind you that you aren’t alone and that a world exists outside our own minds.
Address Negative Thoughts
Notice your negative thought patterns. Identifying negative thought patterns is essential for healing depressive funks because these patterns often stem from unconscious beliefs, fears, or past experiences that we have repressed— meaning there are underlying wounds that require attention and healing.
You may thank these parts or patterns for trying to protect you, but gently shift focus to calmer, grounded thinking.
Prioritize Quality Sleep
Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Avoid screens before bed and wake up with your alarm.
Quality sleep is essential for restorative processes and we must care for our bodies to care for our moods.
Seek Professional Help
If symptoms persist, seek professional guidance. Mental health professionals can help uncover patterns, help you heal underlying wounds or pain, teach coping skills, and provide trusted, confidential support.
Studies show links between male depression and emotional affairs. Research also highlights questions around whether therapy is worth it.
Reconnect With Values and Goals
Set small, achievable steps. Reflect on your core values and your dreams for your life.
Daily wins, no matter how small they may seem, show you that things are changing, moving, and growing. This progress can improve your energy, stress level and create hope where it may have felt lost. Align your actions with what matters most to you.
Practice Gratitude
When you feel depressed, your mind often scans for what’s wrong to reinforce what it already thinks.
The power of gratitude is its ability to interrupt this pattern.
Start small by writing down three things you’re thankful for each day, no matter how minor. Over time, this practice shifts your focus, improves your mood, and helps regulate negative thought patterns.
Gratitude doesn’t erase pain, but it gives your brain evidence that good still exists alongside the hard and helps shift your perspective.
Healthy Daily Routines
A routine helps during a depression funk because it creates structure when motivation is low. Even if you don’t feel like taking a shower or a walk, you send your system an important message about your worth when you do.
When you feel depressed, decision-making can feel overwhelming, and without a plan, it’s easy to spiral into avoidance or isolation. A steady routine reduces that mental load.
Routines also work because they tells your nervous system that life is predictable and safe, lowering stress responses and helping you feel more grounded.
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