Warning Signs of Inadequate Self-Care
A simple, yet both incomplete and impossible, solution to being overwhelmed is to cut all stress out of your life. It seems like a great idea. If X, Y, or Z is causing me to feel like my life or the country or the world at large is out of control, the next logical step is to avoid that stressor. However, as resisters, we are often choosing not only to not avoid the stressor, but to confront it head on.
For someone committed to equality and justice, ignoring the news and hiding under your bed is not a viable option. Even if you are in the privileged position to not be a member of a group being adversely impacted by a policy or law, you still have chosen to stand against injustice.
While avoiding stressors (be it the news, your social media feed, seeing a bumper sticker you disagree with while driving, difficult conversations with people you disagree with, planning resistance events, and so on) is impossible unless you've decided to become an internet-free hermit living alone an the top of a mountain (where you won't really be helping make the world a better place), there are limits to how much you can handle. Living in a time of the 24 hour news cycle, you literally could always be consuming information. There is so much going on at all times. There is so much to be anxious and stressed about. But being constantly in a heightened state of stress is not sustainable (more on this in future posts). You need to know when to take a step back.
Here are some warning signs that you likely need to cut back on your time in which you are in a heightened state of stress (again, more on exactly what this means, how it affects your mental and physical health, and how to avoid/ recover coming up throughout this series). For now, look through this list. If you can relate to any of these, it is likely that you need to improve your self-care regime (more on this coming up to). I am also including gifs, not to make light of the importance of these warning signs, but to make the list (even more) fun to read.
1) You are easily annoyed or frustrated, specifically with circumstances or people that previously did not annoy or frustrate you.
2) You are experiencing more physical health symptoms/ are getting sick more often.
3) Your mind is cloudy. You have difficulty focusing on your work, or it takes you significantly longer than usual to accomplish a routine task.
4) You are tired all the time, or your time sleeping has increased dramatically, or are having difficulty sleeping.
5) You have increased your consumption of food, alcohol, caffeine, and so on.
6) You are more forgetful.
7) You pull away from people or activities that you enjoy.
8) You feel on edge much of the time.
9) You feel uninspired to do work that you previously were passionate about.
10) You are having difficulty keeping up with activities of daily life, such as cooking and eating, bathing, laundry, cleaning, and so on.
I personally have experienced all of these. If I had listened to the warning signs early on and started taking better care of myself, I would not have entered completely into burnout (which we will talk about in detail on Tuesday). My hope is that if you can see these warning signs in your life that you understand that something needs to change for you to be able to remain a healthy, happy activists. I recommend asking those close to you if they see any of these warning signs in you. Over the next month, this blog will explore in more detail what it means to be on the way to burnout, how to avoid it, and general strategies for activists to better care for themselves.
While this blog is designed to be a resource and it is not designed to replace seeking professional mental healthcare. There will be an entire blog post toward the end of this project about seeing mental healthcare, but since that is about three weeks away, I wanted to put in a plug for seeking help. I think it is important for anyone working in the area of social change/ direct social service to seek help processing stressors and negative experiences. Therapy is a great way to do so and I highly recommend it.