Quote:
Originally Posted by ElsaMars
This is common sense really. Routines are good at keeping us on track of lots of things. When I fall out of routine it's due to serious unwellness and no amount of hoping and trying seems to pull me out and put me on track. For instance, I deal with chronic pain and sickness and sometimes I HAVE to nap, or sleep in. No amount of willpower allows me to fight against the need to do so. But I try to keep up with sleep hygiene and I'm trying to incorporate more routine in my life again. I used to be very rigid with routine and I was much better when I did......but I was much better because I was more capable at that time. Knowing what I need to do and being capable of doing it are often 2 completely different things with this illness.
|
Thank you for your answer! I'm not so sure that it is common sense because people without mental disorders are able to cope with life as it comes. I need my routines to stay well. Now I have fallen out of them because life suddenly became too hard, but when I am good at using my routines that keeps me going and that makes me feel that I am able to master my own life. When I'm there (in the master-mode) I use to make deviance-plans as well. An example can be when I am invited out for fun: I have experienced time after time after time that the fun doesn't stop after returning home. To be so full of happy energy, makes it very difficult to sleep. In such a state I need an extra reminder to keep me on track: Before I go out for fun, I write a plan for what to do when I come home: 1) Eat something that calms me down (ex: fish-soup), 2) do relaxation exercises, 3) ... 4) ...
I place the plan at a table where it is easy to see.
Routines for everyday life is a necessary tool for some of us to be able to live a normal or almost normal life. It is not a strict living-rule, but a tool to keep us healthy, - to live well with a MI we cannot get rid of. It is some sort of security net.
If you or anybody find it attractive to use deviance-plans, please use the idea. May be that is what you need for your physical problems, a plan for how to jump into the routine again when you had to break them ...
