Several Days of Self Care

Aka What I'm Doing to Get Better As the first few posts have been about how I've ended up in a mental health mess, I figured now would be a good time to focus on the positives and show what I've been doing to get myself better. At least once a day I'll have sad potato time, but instead of that I'm trying to recognise that I shouldn't wallow in these emotions and get up and do something, no matter how hard that is. There are plenty of times where I want to do something, but I don't want to do something. I want to participate in an activity but instead the meh takes over and I end up on the sofa with a dark cloud over my head. When I am sad potatoing on the sofa, I think the easiest thing to do is something small yet constructive - tidy the coffee table, empty the wastepaper basket. Something very low energy but still means that something has been achieved. Hell, sometimes I don't have the energy to get the washing out of the machine and hang it up t...

Aka Why Saying "Don't Worry About It" Doesn't Work Being still is not my strong point. I'm not the kind of person that can sit on a sofa all day: I always have to be doing something. My life is a plethora of activity. Sunday is a good example. I got up, had coffee, went to a clothes sale, went to a charity shop and bought fabric, picked up some white spirit on the way home. Got home, painted a few things, varnished another, reupholstered a seat. Next thing I know it's 3pm. Made bread, cooked dinner, ate dinner, did another layer of painting, wrote a blog post, did a set of exercises from an app on my phone, had a bath, went to bed. If I am sat down with no activity I get fidgety and antsy. I have this time, I need to use it. I need to make something with it. I like reading and the odd video game but because I'm not creating something, they fall by the wayside whilst I pour my energy into arts and crafts. I enjoy doing these things - they're fun, and...

Aka Things I'm Doing to Stop Myself Becoming a Sad Potato Yesterday I was signed off work with stress and anxiety. It's been brewing for a while and, whilst I feel guilty about not being there with my colleagues, it's probably the right thing to have done. Back in December of 2018 I was referred to the hospital as they suspect I have Meniere's Disease - a rare chronic illness that brings on bouts of vertigo and can lead to profound hearing loss in the affected ear. I won't go in to details here as I plan on leaving it for another post, but having the fear associated with that is where a lot of my anxiety and worries have come from. Alongside this, my hair has been falling out and I was diagnosed with alopecia areata, and I'm also going to have my bloods taken as well as my doctor wants to rule out any possibility of a thyroid condition. When I first had the Meniere's referral, and finding out it would take so long, I found myself despairing. Attacks happ...