Self-Care for Chronic Illness & Neurodiversity
Self-care is a term that is used a lot. But what does it mean for chronically ill or neurodiverse folks? How do you find self-care that is right for ADHD, ASD or chronic fatigue? Do you know when you are close to burn out? When you should rest to prevent a meltdown? What are the different types of self-care? Everyone is different, so let’s look at a self-care journey…
Self-care isn’t all about candles and bubble baths - some of it is hard but people do it for their own good, because it makes their life easier and healthier overall.
Physical Self-Care
Physical self-care is looking after your body. It could be eating well, cutting out alcohol, sugar or caffeine. It might be drinking more water, doing more exercise or going to bed earlier. Self-care for the body is essentially looking after your health so that you don’t experience poor energy levels, and so you can fuel / rest your body properly.
My favourite ways to do physical self-care is to lay for ten minutes with my eyes closed on an acupressure mat with some ocean wave sounds in the background, or going wild swimming.
Wild swimming is relaxing, good exercise, and studies have linked it to improving your mood.
Mental and Emotional Self-Care
Mental and emotional self-care means looking after your mental health and how you feel, so that you don’t experience low mood, turbulent emotions, meltdowns and moments of emotional crisis: being compassionate to yourself and making sure your ‘self-talk’ is positive. It could include journaling, gratitude, affirmations, meditation or mindfulness exercises. You may seek to find a therapist or explore coping mechanisms with a coach.
My favourite ways to do emotional self-care is to having coaching and to use my Earth Coaching Daily Planner to chart my mood and write my gratitude and affirmation for the day.
Journalling outdoors can bring emotional and environmental self-care together.
Intellectual Self-Care
Intellectual self-care is feeling able to express your identity and take part in hobbies, learning or creative projects regularly. Art, music, TV, reading and travel are ways people often recuperate from the grind of everyday life. As children we are taught that play is something to be expected to help us learn, but as we get older, this expectation changes even if the reality is that we need this, no matter our age.
My favourite ways to do intellectual self-care is to immerse myself in fantasy worlds through film, literature or role playing games like D&D and to do some Rebel Badges.
Combining hobbies with the outdoors can enable you to explore your passions, whilst physically improving your health and vitamin D levels.
Social Self-Care
Social self-care includes meeting up with your friends, family and spend time with your pet or your partner, if you have one. For extroverts, who gain energy from social interactions, this is one of the most important types of self-care! Lockdown taught us how much we rely on relationships with others.
Support systems can be ‘in-person’ or online and it is often the case that those who are chronically ill have poorer support systems than those who are well, simply because they don’t have the ability to go out and meet other people as easily. Joining online support groups, such as those on Facebook, can help provide a sense of community where one is lacking.
My favourite ways to do social self-care is through 1:1 time with a friend doing something ‘in-person’ that intellectually stimulates us both, such as going to the theatre, art gallery or a museum.
Being around like-minded people can have an incredible impact your self-worth and mood.
Financial Self-Care
Not many people think of managing finances as self-care, but it is! Saving and investing can really help you manage stress about finances in the future. Focusing on reducing debt, having a budget, making sure you are getting any benefits you are entitled to and living within your means can help you in the present. These are all forms of financial self-care. What are your financial goals and how can you meet them?
My favourite ways to do financial self-care are to budget and to ensure I get the best interest rates on my savings and mortgage.
Saving or investing for the future to take care of future you is one way of caring for yourself.
Environmental Self-Care
Your home and work environment can make all the difference to your mood, your productivity and to how easy it is to find things around the home and workplace. Not only that, it can be a massive fire safety issue if exits are blocked or if it is hard to follow an escape route.
Sensory issues such as the visual overwhelm of untidy spaces, auditory overwhelm due to noise outside or inside and overpowering smells can make your home turn into a living hell. Having a weekly or fortnightly cleaner, a dishwasher and a organisational system can be highly beneficial. Similarly, so can noise cancelling headphones, soft blankets, calming colour palettes and other sensory soothers, which help to create an environment that feels safe and comforting, instead of stressful, challenging and dangerous.
My favourite ways to do environmental self-care are having a weekly cleaner and having all my things neatly organised and labelled!
Keeping a calm, clean and organised environment can make all the different to your stress levels and health.
Work Self-Care
Work self-care may not be relevant to everyone. But for those of you who work, it may be the most stressful part of your life. It is important to make sure you have strong boundaries to ensure that work does not spill over into other time / areas of your life so that you have sufficient time to switch off and relax.
Ensuring you have regular breaks, entitlement to holiday and sick leave is fundamental for pacing and chronic illness or neurodivergent life.
Having a positive or supportive workplace can make all the difference between being able to cope with or recover from chronic illnesses and being able to mindfully manage neurodiverse living.
My favourite ways to do work self-care is to only work on 3-4 days a week and to put my health first.
It is important to be able to mentally and practically leave work ‘at the office’.
Hopefully this has given you an understanding of what the different forms of self-care are and how you may incorporate them into your life. If you need further support, don’t be afraid to contact me for coaching support.
