Blog 18th May 2020
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and I will try to share my positive thoughts and some less than cheery moments.
For the first time in a very long time, today, I went about my usual jobs and ‘pottering’. All without having any awareness of my body, except for my senses.
I wheeled VERY efficiently out of the front door, and headed down the drive, to collect the post. I passed a few of my usual ‘layby’ points with out stopping. However, I thoroughly loved what I could see, smell and hear, all the way to the post box. It’s not far, but it’s enough of a trip to have required an awful lot of mental and physical energy, prior to the wheelchair.
This fairly dull job was to me, was special and significant. It meant that I was at last ‘popping’ out, to do boring but necessary trips, to places in an around the home. Things that I most certainly never gave much thought to when my walking was easy.
"That", I thought; when I nearly crashed through the front door, joyfully aware of my unawareness, was a genuinely natural way of moving around. I didn’t have to think about where my feet were, what my hands were doing (they did it all naturally). It felt as natural to me as walking does to most people.
The emotional energy and endless thought processes, involved in going out of the house, has lessened, throughout this Lock Down. Using the wheelchair more, has had a very positive affect on my well-being, and I am not using all of my energy recovering from falls.
Prior to the wheelchair, any trip out, to the post box, or putting rubbish out, or getting things out of my car. Anything that we generally, all do, without much thought, was going to the bottom of my list. This was becoming a source for frustration.
The little jobs that shouldn’t really become worrying, were being left, or done by others. That’s okay, you may say. Putting the rubbish out is boring anyway. However, independence is not boring, and retaining as much of that has been so important. I have clung ferociously to these little tasks, out of sheer, ridiculous and exhausting determination to find an easier way to manage.
If I hadn’t gone through that slightly obsessive phase, I don’t think I would have found my independence in other areas so exciting!
We all have experiences in our lives, that affect us adversely. Some of us have more than one. These are currently, and very unfortunately, referred to by Government as A.C.E.’s, which stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. The more you have the more likely you are, to experience difficulties in life, in relationships, and to have poor mental health. Hardly a revelation.
Physical and Mental Health go hand in hand. In the cases of people with CMT, or other similarly progressive conditions, poor mental health is many more times likely to become a massive issue, and in turn impacts on our resilience, our outlook and can certainly affect our physical health...
“I’ll catch you up” is not a phrase I’ve said before, or certainly not for a good 20 plus years.
Hubby is taking the big dog out, I’m joining him shortly, with the little dog, straight after I’ve posted this.
This is quite a momentous morning.
Be extra kind to yourselves this week.
Please feel free to contact me, as always.
