Ich habe vor kurzem mit der Behandlung meiner Depression begonnen. Heute habe ich meine Pflanzen zum ersten Mal seit ein paar Wochen gegossen. Mein Pothos hat am meisten darunter gelitten. Sobald meine Pflanzen munter und gebissen sind, fange ich an, sie ein wenig zu beschneiden und zu sehen, was ich retten kann. Ich wollte das nur mit euch teilen, denn ich bin mir sicher, dass sich hier jemand in einer ähnlichen Situation befindet. Es ist nicht deine Schuld, du bist nicht faul, es ist eine Krankheit. Ich hoffe, Sie finden die Energie und den Mut, sich selbst behandeln zu lassen. Es hilft wirklich.
Von: DaFranzi
16 Comments
🫂 Been thru it myself, hope life gets better for you. And on the bright side you can always buy some more plants to replace the dead ones when you feel up to it.
If you haven’t water your pothos for some time, it’s probably soil turned hydrophobic or the roots rot from staying dry too long.
Your plants are quite resilient, as are you. I hope this is only a season of slow growth for you and that there are many blooms ahead🌷
Hang in there friend, you are not alone💚
I suffer with bouts of depression, I can’t afford therapy and I don’t like the way anti depressants make me feel so I have to find other ways of coping.
I have about 300+ houseplants, and one of the ways I have found help with maintaining my collection is cabinets and self watering pots, and mini greenhouses, also semi hydro woth large reservoirs.
This makes it so if I can’t move off the bed for 2 weeks, I don’t have as many plants die on me ❤️ hope this helps someone
♥️🙏❤️
Aww, if it’s not too difficult you could chop the first two and just put everything in a big jar of water instead.
Of course it is just a suggestion feel free to ignore me completely! Big hugs! I know how bad it gets when you cannot take care of yourself let alone thinking about the plants when you are depressed. But it can get better, I promise! One step at a time. Try to do smallest happy things for yourself. Like if you enjoy putting on make up go put on some make up for no reason. If you feel like you wanna eat chocolate ice cream for breakfast, do that I give you permission for the week! Keep giving yourself little gifts. And if you have people that can support you and if you like those people and want them in your life, please please please, lean on them. This is why they exist. To support you in your worst days.
Continue reading of you wanna try the big chop but don’t know how:
I would cut three nodes per piece and remove all the bottom leaves. Leave one leaf per cutting. And put them in a jar of water. Put the jar in a bright spot and top it up whenever you notice it needs a top up. If the water is also getting light, you may want to change the water every now and then (light causes bacterial growth), especially during the first few weeks. If you see anything disgusting happening in the water just pull that disgusting cutting out and throw it away. Use it as a metaphor for getting rid of people who didn’t live up to what you expected of them, if you like!
Thank you for sharing this. This year has just been about survival . The worst feeling everytime for me when I could muster up the energy to look after myself again was looking at how neglected my plant babies have become. My Pothos and Peace Lilly have survived every depressive bout this year and makes me thankful that growth still occurs after hard times.
Not depressed, but my ADHD often makes me forget about some plants. I resorted to downsizing my collection and only keeping the plants that basically grow themselves (like succulents outside) or that I can easily focus on. Most of which are poinsettias, which is ironic considering that they’re usually considered a high maintenance plant. And they are, but I can hyperfocus on them no problem for hours every day just because I like them so much.
As someone with chronic severe depression I can vouch for succulents, they are so forgiving as they basically thrive on being left alone 😅
Very kind of u
Homie, I recently installed a plant rail and after exactly one watering realized it was never gonna work without self-watering pots. [I’ve always kinda hated the idea of self watering pots—truly idk why, I had this idea they looked tacky and cheap? I guess? Really I don’t know why I’d always been opposed, but I digress].
Let me tell you—omg! They are GREAT!!!! Nay, PHENOMENAL!!! I had a work thing last month where I was dead to the world basically all month long (and away from home for a week of that)—plants still looked great when I got home. They’re completely thriving in a way I’ve never been able to achieve even in the best times. (I’ve tried every possible way to capture a photo that does them justice but I can’t in a single pic, so I’ll just show off my showstoppers here)
https://preview.redd.it/vzhw997fff1g1.jpeg?width=1895&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcdb072f0f6c9e7739baba817936cd61d0a4f91a
Whenever you get around to pruning and re-potting—I implore you to consider investing in self watering pots. For trailing plants, you won’t even really see the pots themselves—you can find halfway decent plastic self watering pots (the kind with the absorbent string), for very reasonable prices. For plants where you can see the pots (like eg the fern or pepperomia) there are really gorgeous glass + clay self watering pots available—different concept from the string type, like imagine a clay pot stacked inside a glass cup. You fill the glass with a few inches of water, stack the pot inside and the pot slowly absorbs over time. Full disclosure—this kind is a little pricier, esp as you get into the larger sizes, but they are really striking visually and imho worth the investment for the right plants.
I’ve found it’s improved my mental rebound when I’m not literally surrounded by death—like the visuals of impending (plant) death and the feelings of failure and regret that come with watching your beloved plants die a slow death. Definitely improves baseline mood to remove that visual from your environment permanently and you can make that your reality with self watering pots. Godspeed, friend ❤️
Side note: I absolutely adore your book collection. Wishing you the best with your treatment and look forward to a time when you can share that you and your plants are striving. You are so strong to take those first steps.
I get seasonal depression so my plants unfortunately get seasonal neglect. I feel you and hope things stay on a positive trajectory for you
As the adage goes, plant caretaking is a marathon, not a sprint, much like managing and treatment for mental health or other chronic conditions.
The pothos will recover. I might give it an aggressive pruning, after it starts showing growth again, as this will a) allow for new, more compact growth, and b) reduce the surface areas of the leaves and thus demand for water.
People have given suggestions for self watering or systems. Another suggestion for watering plants is to **transform it so that it isn’t a chore** (as much.) This helps a ton when you have low energy.
#Setup:
1. Purchase or aquire a few to several high capacity watering cans (~1.5 to 2L is ideal, if you can carry it comfortably). Capacity helps to reduce frequency of refilling. You don’t need anything fancy, the dollar store will do here, or Amazon.
2. When you do have the energy and you are watering your plants, when finished fill up your watering cans again.
3. Place your full watering cans strategically around your house near groups of plants. Avoid placing them in areas they may spill (obviously) or areas that could be badly damaged if they spill.
#Practice:
The goal is to mentally reframe watering from being a procedural chore, to instead be a self empowering granular action.
##The practice is as follows:
1. Try to develop a habit of looking at your plants closely and enjoying them. You don’t need to do anything except enjoy them. Inspect the leaves, look at new growth, think about how accomplished you are to have a green thumb. Sidenote: This is also a practice of mindfulness which is therapeutic itself.
2. When looking at your plants, notice the soil. If needed, give it a bit of water from your handy watering can nearby.
3. After watering one (or two) plants in the same area, stop. You don’t need to water more. It’s not a chore, just a little thing you did for your plants and for yourself. By stopping yourself, you can help break the mentality of watering being a “large expensive” action and it’s instead a small simple one, like grabbing a glass of water.
4. If your watering can is below half way full after and you feel energized to do so, fill it up and put it back. Or, try to fill it up next time you have energy and are spending time with your plants for any reason.
5. On the days you have low energy, you can be comfortable knowing that you’ve already attended to your plants recently, and if you do urgently need to water any plants, you only need to water one or two, and there is a ready watering can nearby for you to use, thus, you can probably do it. And if you do, you might feel a little better.
I’ve done these things when I’ve struggled with my mental health, and it’s helped me keep reasonably on top of my 100+ plant collection. Adjust the strategy to whatever you find works best for you 🙂
Edit: phrasing
Thanks for posting, OP… It’s been a rough year, and seeing this reminded me to go water my ever-resilient and inspiring pothos.
In the dark moments this summer, I thought maybe I was the only one who lost babies and precious props because of depression. It was heartbreaking on top of the F tier mood stuff, because I thought my love of plants would override, or steer me out of, the deepest dips. I thought more plants = more happiness = less down. Didn’t work out that way. So not only did I lose half my plants, I lost faith in that argument. Lost faith that depression will ever have a foolproof solution for me, where I can avoid it altogether. And maybe that’s just the way it is, but there have to be footholds or pitons to grab onto somewhere along this emotional cliff face. Love for plants can be one. And while we search for others, we can help the survivors thrive again. Who knows, maybe we’ll catch on too.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I hope treatment goes well.
Thank you so much.