Please, Do Not Tell Me To 'Have a Hot Bath' When I Can't Sleep!
WARNING: A decent amount of sarcasm within this post. But it's relevant, I promise you, sort of---I do.
When You Suffer With Anxiety You Probably Do Not Want to Be told (again)...
>To breathe deeply.
>To breathe deeply and count!
>To breathe in a very specific way. Make sure you extend your abdomen with each intake until you feel exceedingly bloated!
>To scream into a pillow. But, they might say, please don't rip the pillow and pull out feathers. I have done this. Should I be embarrassed? Perhaps I just like feathers.
>To "just wait it out!" Right. Thanks. "Waiting" feels like it won't ever end when your heart is racing. Waiting is painful.
>Take a nap. Are they serious? Sleeping with a racing heart is difficult.
>DRINK SOME TEA! Tea? Right. I really hate tea. Even the work "tea" seems ridiculous to me. I think I used to like it in my younger years. Before I was told tea was nearly as effective as lithium. Yes, tea (!!!).
All of the things I mention might work in your favor but, then again, they might piss you off.
When You Suffer With Insomnia You Probably Do Not Want to Be told (again)...
>To have a hot bath. Or shower. Or call someone with a hot tub.
>To drink more damn tea.
>To practice yoga at 5 a.m. Do some stretches. Yes, this will help you sleep! Yay!
>To breathe. Again. Breathe until you realize your lungs breathe on their own. What a novelty!
And on and on and on...
When You Suffer With Depression You Probably Do Not Want to Be told (again)...
>To "suck it up". Ohhh, that one pisses me off. Suck what up exactly? My chemical imbalance?
>To smile. A clinically depressed smile is more of a grimace. It might scare people and so if you want me to smile, sure, but be prepared to have a warm bath and a cup of tea after.
>To just "not think about it" and move on. The words "move" and "depression" don't really make sense.
>Tea. Yes, tea again!
You get the drift. You cannot blame people for not understanding. We understand what we live on a daily basis and they do as well. If you heard a friend talking about a pulled muscle you might tell them to put some ice on it. And they might feel the same way as we do when we are told to drink tea.
If all of the above work for you, well, my apologies for creating an entire blog on how irritated I get when I am told, over and over again (it might very well be the repetition that kills me), that these things can make it all go away.
However, we have many things that we can do to help us recover from mental illness and none of them, at least within my writing, involves a tea bag or scalding water. Self-care can help with anxiety, insomnia and depression.
My apologies if you have a serious bond to sleepy-time (HA!) tea and lavender bath salts.
APA Reference
Jeanne, N.
(2012, November 22). Please, Do Not Tell Me To 'Have a Hot Bath' When I Can't Sleep!, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, November 22 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/recoveringfrommentalillness/2012/11/please-do-not-tell-me-to-have-a-hot-bath-when-i-cant-sleep
Author: Natalie Jeanne Champagne
I must admit that tea would be better than Lithium. Lithium does NOT like me.
Marie,
Lithium seems to disagree with some people and save others lives. Depends which side of the coin you end up on:)
Thanks for the comment,
Natalie
People and their two bit suggestions. I know how to sleep. I take a pill and then I am knocked out all the next day. I hate tea. Too much work. Nevertheless I am sure some dope on the street is MUCH more skilled at this stuff than my psychiatrist. If they just said what worked for them AND they had something like my problem - or frankly any problem of similar magnitude it would at least be worthy of a listen. Someone said to watch a movie when I was feeling awful. Clueless may have saved my life! ha ha
I talk to people who have a mental illness like depression. And she says the same things and then is like well i know it sounds stupid and you can hear when she says it sometimes its like well i have to say but i dont believe it. Shes not that bad and rarely uses those lines but i guess sometimes it just seemed like the right thing to say.
Hi, jc and April
Glad people can relate; I was worried that tea might help everyone but me:)
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Natalie
What really annoys me about those people who give this advice is that they don't get that we're dealing with an illness here. If you told them you had kidney disease, would they give you advice about that? Of course not, but because we have a "mental" illness, it's okay to give stupid, useless, unwanted and unsolicited advice. Okay, I fell better now. Thanks.
Hi, Maureen,
I know what you mean! And it's really impossible to explain it to them. Thanks for the comment!
Natalie
I agree that tea won't do much for anxiety and depression except for the fact that it might serve as a distraction and give you something to do. However, you have to wait a few minutes for the tea to strain properly which is annoying.
Tea won't make me feel better, but the sarcasm in this post might do the trick for a few minutes. A humorous distraction. Thanks.
I'm like you. I know some of this works but its getting tiring bring told over and over again like its a magical self help treatment. It may work to a degree but sometimes nothing works. An right now when I try to smile it makes my depression worse and makes me want to run off hide and cry for no reason. So that one really gets to me. And your blogs are great, I look forward to reading them. And the sarcasim is awesome, it helps a lot. Thank you for the blogs and the inspiration and for most of all giving me a reason to want to do something, even if it is just to get up and check to see if you wrote something.