Advice From a Spoonie: It's Okay to Take a Day Off

Image from The Graphics Fairy

    Yesterday my depression was fairly bad.  Not dangerously bad.  But it was a very "meh" day.  I just could not focus.  I couldn't seem to even care about most things.  So I took the day off and mostly played the Sims 4.

    Sometimes you just have to take a day off.  Not even a planned day off.  And I wouldn't call these days a rest and relaxation day or anything like that.  Rather they are mental health days or even sick days.
     It can be really hard to give ourselves permission to take time off or go easy on ourselves.  I am not going to even get into how the work situations in the US contribute to this.  Rather I'd like to look at a different issue in the mess.

    I want to talk about productivity and feelings & expectations that we always have to be productive.  This can be more so for with disabilities.  Be they permanent of temporary. 

    Before I left my job as a baker I had gotten a really bad infection.  My doctor prescribed me medicine, but also restricted me to not lift anything over 25 pounds for two weeks.  Only for the two weeks.  This was not taken so well by my managers.  There was a job in the department I could do that only really involved about a thirty minute stint of lifting I could not do and I had to switch with someone for that part.  I do the cleaning in their part of the department and they do the lifting and moving.

    But this wasn't good enough for the managers.  If I wasn't going to be able to do that small part of the work I needed to work twice as fast as normal.  They actually told me that.

    And I know from talking to others that this isn't an isolated case.

    Worse I know that a lot of us get so used to this that we start to expect it of ourselves.  We internalize it.  We expect ourselves to be able to make up work and do more than a regular work load on days we are still recovering and even on the days we are sick, injured, or just not our best.

    And that only leads us to get worse.

    So take the rest you need, focus on your health.  And don't try to do two or three days of work in one.

Lot's of love,
Lilian