What are the activities of daily living (ADLs)? Quite simply, they are the things that a normally functioning adult fulfills to carry on a normal day. It's not that difficult, but for a person with mental illness these tasks can be extremely challenging.
The first ADL I find hard is making my bed. This is a ploy to get me out of bed. When I am depressed, I want to stay in bed and sleep all day. To get out of bed takes all my strength. Making my bed is the way of telling my brain I am up and will not be getting under the covers until bedtime.
After getting up, I got to the bathroom. It's not just to use it, but to wash my face and brush my teeth. This is a big deal. Washing my face involves looking in the mirror, which I hate to do. One of the first signs I am depressed is that I stop brushing my teeth. Gross I know, so you can imagine what shape my teeth were in before I went to the dentist. All of my teeth have fillings or crowns. They look fine now, just kind of stained from coffee and cigarettes.
Taking a shower is traumatizing for me. You see, I hate my body. I hate looking at it and touching it. On occasion, it has taken me hours to shower, only to give up and throw on the clothes I wore for the past 3 days. When I do take a shower, it lasts for 5 minutes, unless I wash my hair, then it's 8 minutes.
Another ADL is feeding yourself. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and I do my best to make it healthy. I'm on an eating plan now, and I try to eat healthy all day. I'm having problems at night. I binge eat, destroying my diet. I ate a can of cake frosting the other night. Last night, I ate 2 of the large size Rice Krispies bars. What about my diabetes? That's an ADL, checking my blood sugar. But sometimes I just don't care.
I've been having trouble sleeping lately. Either I don't sleep at all, or I fall asleep at 3 AM and sleep all morning. I am not taking my meds on time, which just makes things worse mentally. I've just seen my psychiatrist, and he made some adjustments to my meds. I am also working on another ADL, my sleep routine. I am trying to take my meds in the morning by 9 AM, and my night time meds between 8:30 and 9. I am going to start setting my alarm for 8:30 so I don't oversleep and miss my morning meds.
So why are completing my ADLs so difficult? Depression, lethargy, fatigue, self loathing, and lack of motivation all add up to a dirty, smelly, slob with a messy room, bad breath, and nappy hair. I'm getting better though. I did my laundry, changed my linens, took a shower, washed my hair, vacuumed my room, and brushed my teeth. That was yesterday. Tomorrow is another day.
Peace, Joy, Love - B
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