Trouble reading

Anyone else?
My concentration is shot to pieces, I can barely concentrate on reading a whole screen of text let alone a chapter of a book. It has got to the point I can only read academic books with a notebook and pencil otherwise I lose track, forget or just plain lose interest (in the things I adore). I even find myself getting up and fidgeting or zoning out when I read fiction - I used to be fully slotted into the escapist reader section but I feel I'm losing my grip on that as well.
Please tell me I'm not the only one or at least that it'll go away..

It does happen, yes.

Many people find that going back to old favourites, even children's books, helps and also gives comfort.

Hey Knife, -- Know your problem!

here are some books that helped me.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression by Kindel and Segal

Overcoming Depression using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy by Paul Gilbert
There is another book in the (series) anyway, by the same publisher called Overcoming Anxiety. I believe there is even a workbook with this one.
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron

There are other's in my Library but I found these the most helpful (if difficult to remember when you are depressed/anxious)

As far as remmbering things, I also write extensive notes on the chapters but I find reading a chapter at a time then resting- staring out of the window, doing the washing up etc. quite helpful,if frustrating. I am by nature a person who, when I pick up a book want to reach the end as soon as possible. I think it took me a month to finish some of the more in depth ones.

Anyway good Luck and hang in there!!

"April is the cruelest month"

T.S. Eliot

LittleKnife, I've been there - struggling a bit with it just now but not as bad as I can be - I think it is one of my warning signs that my depressions are getting bad - and I also find some medications can affect concentration and motivation to read. Fiction seems generally harder than non-fiction, for some reason.

It does go away! I promise! Get help, if you have not already done so.

And I agree with LyzzyBee that old favourites can help - they can get me back into reading after a dry spell. Cranford is my all-time stand-by - I know it so well that lapses in concentration don't bother me too much and it is set in a safe world - though I do fret that the railways are coming and the little town will be all changed...

Another book which helped me get back into reading was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime which I read after a bad spell - I think the fact it was narrated by a character with Aspergers helped - it was so clear and simple and unemotional in tone that it carried me along...

I also find it easier to listen than to read when low - so audiobooks and BBC Radio 4 and BBC 7 (you can listen online) are wonderful. Also good when I can't sleep.

I have struggled the past several months reading w/any kind of regularity/consistency through any of the books I have aquired.

What I have found is that 'balance' is the best in these situations. In other words, read something light to offset something a bit more intense. While I adore serious/contemplative contemporary literature, I also like to laugh out-loud at the silliest of things, like Cat Getting Out of a Bag.

I even went back to my childhood memories and started re-reading old Bloom County cartoon strips. Ah, Opus - there's a protagonist for all of us!

Anyway, laughter always distracts and shakes me out of these periods enough to get me back to fine. So that's my recommendation. Laugh, live, and then laugh some more.

;-)

I agree with all of the above and will add that if possible take a walk in the sunshine. It really helps.

I was not able to read for years, just now and then an old favourite YA book.
In december 2006 I weaned off Seroxat (Paxil), because it did not help anymore and now I am on Efexor.
A year later I could read again!
Have been reading every day since January 2008.

So if you take anti-depressive, that could be the reason of not being able to concentrate/read

edited because I realised Seroxat is known as Paxil in large parts of the world

The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns if you are actually suffering from depression; you have to do it however. The alternatives are medication or meditation. Professional help can be a boon.

If you're having a rough time short of depression (depressive affect is one way to put it) you can use comics; Pogo was good for me when I was younger.

Robert

I'm glad someone rejuvenated this thread. It's an old one and because of that I never noticed it before.

My reading is suffering drastically lately. I've experienced periods of depression for about ten years now and until the past year, I could always read through them. I would pack a bag full of books with me to take to the hospital and I was always reading one while I waited for my therapy appointments, but over the last year I have found it near impossible.

It's part concentration, but for me it's mostly a side effect of anhedonia or the lack of pleasure in previously pleasureful activities. For me writing and reading were always the last two things I enjoyed no matter how blue, but writing (as I think of writing) has disappeared entirely and reading is an uphill battle.

The one and only thing that has really helped me is reading a book with a group here on LT. I had the motivation to read the book to keep up with the rest of the group and once I had a reason to read, I realized I still enjoy it.

Even though I know I still love reading (and writing) underneath all this haze, it's so heartbreaking to feel separated and alienated from activities that are so much a part of me.

Of course, a lot of this is because my depression is basically going untreated (not from a lack of trying) and well as sure anyone reading this knows on some level, depression can just be so hard to manage.

hi twomoredays

I know how depression interferes with life.

I have been going up and down nearly all my life, but mangaged to cope until a fatal day in September 1996, then anxiety and phobias popped up and never left.
Then I was diagnosed with Borderline. The pills helped to cut off the sharpest edges of depression, but were no help with phobias and anxiety.
Finally, after a horrible indident, I left the big city nearly three years ago, went to live in a quiet neighborhood of a smaller city, with husband and dogs. The dogs have been my life-savers more than once.

I used to be a "reading everywhere" person too and only realised recently that not being able to read probably had to do with the Seroxat (Paxil) that I took for years.

Anyhow I am sooo happy to be able to read again!