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  • Writer's pictureSvenja Dollar

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The recovery journey is at times just as grueling as the illness itself. Many people who are struggling from chronic illnesses (mental or physical) may want to give up and let the illness take over because improvement is so difficult to achieve.

My husband Christian has a great analogy to explain the situation in this week’s radio segment. In today's segment I talk about how improvement in the recovery journey may lead to the increase of energy but have delayed improvement in the mental status of an individual. I get very frustrated that I have energy to do things but then when I attempt to accomplish the tasks I had set out to do (i.e. cooking dinner, cleaning the house, giving the dog a bath, writing a blog post or radio segment) I become overwhelmed by negative emotions due to the cognitive/mental stress that doing these things involve. My husband equates this frustration to the last couple days of fighting a cold. You wake up and feel a bunch better, you start to get out of bed and start getting ready and your cold hits you right in the face, you’re still achy, your throat is still sore, your head starts feeling like it’s going to explode again, and you get frustrated! Because you felt better and you want this cold to be done with!! Have you ever had that? Now imagine if that state of motivation and energy fighting with your actual state of disability lasted for weeks or months! In my case, it lasted for a few months, and the desperation that this caused and the absolute despair I was in because now I KNEW how much in the hole I was with recovery, led to suicidal ideology. If you are in that state, if you know someone who is in that state, talk about it. And find something that you CAN do, even if it is as simple as brushing teeth or maybe going for a walk today. Focus on what you CAN do and how far you have come. Even if it's only a little way that you have come, focus on that, if you came that far, you can keep taking steps to get further and further along!

This stage is really grueling to live through but there are some things that I have done that really made it easier for me and I really hope that they can help you too.

-Make a “menu” of things you can do to help when you are overwhelmed, struggling with your mental illness, or feel excess energy that you need to therapeutically get rid of. My menu consisted of various things:

Taking a warm bath

coloring in a coloring book

pet Charlie

go for a walk

listen to music (dance to it if you can)

do progressive muscle relaxation

breathing exercises

scribble with a pen, pencil, marker, anything that can take a decent amount of pressure

watch an episode of my favorite show (mine was House at the time)

lay on the floor to get a bug’s perspective of your house

knit

Your list can involve other things such as swimming, bike riding, or reading. Nothing is too weird and as long as you aren’t harming yourself or others, any small task can help you get your energy out and not put too much strain on yourself. Try to include things that are short and you can stop at any time. For example, don’t put something like “baking cookies” on the list, though you may love to do it. If you all of a sudden get overwhelmed or misjudged your energy levels, to be stuck with a pile of dirty dishes and cookies you have to make sure not to burn may not be the best thing to calm you down. In my experience these following activities were too much for me to be able to stop at any time, and I advise you exercise caution when considering them to be on your “menu.”

-baking

-cooking

-laundry

-grocery shopping

-giving your dog a bath

-painting

-crafting


Once you have made you menu, make sure to place it in an easily access or view-able area. And make sure to read it each day. That way, you are able to begin to memorize the items on the list, just in case you are away from home or not able to get up and go find the list.

This tactic is one of many that can help! Comment below if you have found something else that helps!



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