How To Get Rid Of Empty Moods?

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Why do I feel so empty? I can't get it. Is this depression? Or lack of motivation? I dont' know. I just sit in home for the entire day - doing nothing. All my interests are blurred and blank... my mind is blank. I can not sense anything. No joy or happiness... Not even anxiety or irritation... It's apathy? I don't know. How should I get rid of this pathertic, empty mood? Does any of You feel or ever felt this way? It's horrible.

I relate, it sounds like where I am atm.
Don't have any answer to offer.

I'm waiting for the result of a second opinion on my diagnosis.

Is there anything on the horizon for you?

What second opinion?

Anything on the horizon? I am currently looking for some specialist to get my AS diagnosis... I am looking for job (but I'm hopeless in that)... I am all alone, in foreign country... I recently joined aspergers' support youth group - but it didn't help to get me feel better... I don't know what's on the horizon...

I can relate to most of your feelings, and I have to say that it sounds to me like depression. I can't tell you if your depression (if that's what it is) is clinical or circumstancial, but either way, a visit to the GP/doctor would probably be a good start. It's likely that you could be treated for it in some way, either by medication or lifestyle changes or therapy/counselling or even a combination.

Of course, I'm not a professional, so who knows. But I think a doctor visit would be a good start.

My first diagnosis was depression + an autistic spectrum disorder.
This was done @ a center loosely affiliated with my college education then.
I'd like a second and more full diagnosis and my Doctor/Psychologist referred me a place that can provide this.
I did their tests and I'm waiting to hear back from them.

A diagnosis is a good thing to get in any case. No matter what the conclusion is, it should open up a variety of possibly paths.
I can't speak for you, but I really need some solid options atm. Trying anything by myself again just feels doomed to fail and pointless.

How goes your search for a specialist? It can be quite hard, depending on your location.
If you need any help there are many threads on this topic though.

As far as know, the closest specialist is in Cambridge (that's like 50 miles from where I live)

I see. Have you made any steps towards contacting this specialist?

The reason I'm nagging on this is because I don't really believe in getting rid of this feeling of depression and apathy.
There certainly are cases where this feeling is caused by hormone imbalances and who-knows-what, but it's a minority.

If one wants to be rid of it, or at least reduce it, underlying causes must be dealt with.
Seeing a doctor or specialist may be a difficult step, but it's most likely the best one at this point.

Other than that, the old stereotypes are true. It's just hard to get started.
Get out of bed early, eat well, take walks or get your body going in some other way.
Energy isn't just there, you have to make it.

Alternatively, feast on chocolate goodness, go see your favorite movie, if you have any friends/relatives you can connect with, go see them. Try talking to them. These are temporary solutions that may help get you going.

I have been there, believe me. But you need professional help in regards to this. I needed it too during my most desperate times. Find things you like, and stick with doing those activities. It will, in time help lift your spirits. But first you need to talk to a professional because getting out of that slump is not easy. I am sorry you feel like this.

I get struck by apathy quite often. In fact, I'm quite apathetic right now. I find that sometimes listening to ELO's "Mr Blue Sky" helps momentarily, but other than that, all I can do is try to work on my music and stuff (which is really difficult in this mood) and hope that that'll get me out of this situation eventually.

I'm exactly the same a lot of the time. Someone above mentioned taking walks and eating healthily- this is good advice, but hard to follow when you don't have any motivation.

I've often wondered if the 'empty' feelings are caused by boredom and/or loneliness. It would explain why doing things I 'like' did nothing to help (except drawing, which I do almost instinctively, not for enjoyment: it's a form of escapism).

If motivation is the problem, do something that forces you to get up (like join a hockey club or something, where they train early and give out hell if you're late/miss practice). I guarantee you'll hate it at the time, but the excerise and human interaction will help

Yeh, thanks for Your advice.

I think it may be loneliness... Being stuck in home for entire days isn't really good way of living...

Yesterday i was mostly in that kind of state.... I thought I had pushed another person away that I certainly didn't want to.... I couldn't get up outa my computer chair, and just sat there.... Until I finally talked to the person and cleared that up..... After that I was fine.

I sometimes find myself uninterested in my interests. When this happens, it is easy to get depressed. What I will often do is take my laptop computer to the quietness of the bedroom, pull the sheets up around me, and play a few rounds of solitaire. After I begin to feel relaxed, I try to work on my novel. Sometimes, it works---I get interested again. And sometimes it doesn't work---I just have to wait it out. The interests come back eventually. Right now, I am finding it hard to engage in my interests. But I am finding the wrongplanet forum to be a great friend right now. Talking about these things in here helps.

sounds like a combination of things

Holiday blahs - a lot of people are expected to be happy, have the holiday spirit, etc. Sometimes things aren't happy. (especially in this economy)

Seasonal Affective Disorder - quite simply, there's not enough sunshine in your life. Being somewhere around the Canadian latitudes, sundown comes around high tea, if'n I remember rightly.

Loneliness - if you're in another country, you're not really home. And not having someone to be with could be a problem too.

Hope things do get better for you.

I’m chronically depressed at this point in my life so I have the feeling you describe at some point pretty much almost every single day. The boredom and sadness sometimes go together, other times one proceeds the other. Antidepressants have only been a modest help for me. If you rely on them for years on end they stop working completely.

The best thing to do is simply force myself to do something fun even if it doesn’t seem particularly interesting or worthwhile to me in my moment of emptiness. Sometimes the interest and stimulation catches on only after I start doing something. If it doesn’t catch on at all it’s usually because I’m tired / not rested and don’t realize it because of the boredom/sadness. In that case I just try to see if I can take a nap. Being tired seems to bring out the worst of it and paradoxically leads to insomnia as I feel like I don’t want to go to bed when I’m in that bored/despondent state. I feel like I need to go on the internet to distract myself from the emptiness but then I get too tired and bored to derive pleasure from that activity either.

Other times coffee helps me feel more motivated though it’s a bit of an addiction. I get slightly manic on it sometimes and then crash into depression a few hours later. But if I’m tired enough to immediately go to sleep when I crash it works out okay. Evenings are always the worst for me.

Lack of motivation.
Decide what you want to do with your career, visualise your ultimate goal and plan the steps in between.
Get things started on the first step and treat it as a full-time job.
Then when you're feeling empty, you don't have to waste your day - you just plunge yourself into 'work'.
Time is very much like money and should never be wasted.
You only get so much of it in your life, to invest in yourself.
And if you don't FEEL like 'working' - bear in mind that just being in work mode, however little you feel you're doing, is a good thing because in the long-run, time spent on something is proportional to its prospects of success.

Oh and one other thing, always remember 'Work and ye shall succeed'.
The important thing's the 'working', the outcome will take care of itself.