What a wonderful week it has been, having Abby from Life @ The Poles here. It has been a real treat for me.  Not only did she take time away from her day to create a new post for us everyday this week, she did it while her In-Laws have been in town.  Abby rocks!

Let’s look at what she has for us today.

My bad days
can happen at a moment’s notice,
and be gone almost as quickly.
More often than not
I get a stretch of bad days
and it’s those times I have to prepare for.
I try and watch for signs
that a rough patch is on the way,
and having even a little bit of warning
helps.
(This is where the whole
writing daily thing comes in handy.
I know better now
what to look for
because of the writing
than I did before,
so it’s easier to catch them.)
One of the most basic things I do
is plan out
the major meals for the week
ahead of time,
and have all the supplies
in the house
at the start of the week.
I try and keep
a regular as possible
weekly schedule,

as far as when I go shopping and such,
so that if something unexpected happens
(and it often does)
at least I know
what we’re having for dinner.
Even if it’s just the kids and my husband
eating hot dogs
when I’m too depressed to cook or eat.
Which happens more often
than I like to think about.
Other things I do
to help make life smoother
on those rough days
are smaller,
but still important.
I try and keep my mp3 player charged
in case I just need to tune out the world
and unwind.
I try and keep
at least one thing in the house
I know I can grab to eat quickly
that I will eat
no matter what else I won’t eat.
(I go through phases
of not eating certain things
or only eating certain things,
or not eating until dizzy
and feeling ill.
It’s not good for me,
so I try and prepare ahead of time
for those little quirks of mine.)
Sometimes
that might be homemade guacamole (http://lifeatthepoles.com/2010/06/eat-it-with-a-spoon-guacamole/ )
and other times
it may very well be Slim Jims.
Other things are not so much
to make hard days easier
so much as make hard days
harder to have.
I keep my yoga mat
weights
and favorite workout DVD’s
in plain sight at all times,
so there is no forgetting
to get in my workout that day.
I feel better when I do,
at least most days,
and I know
that I’ll ‘forget’
if I don’t have a consistent reminder.
I keep a knitting project near by,
because it’s harder to kill people
if you have needles in your hands.
My medications
are in the same spot
every single day,
and where I will see them
every single day.
There isn’t much
that makes for a harder than usual day
than forgetting my meds that morning.
I also set alarms on the cell phone.
Which might not seem
like something that helps make for a better day
but when you have a tendency
to lose track of time
easily and often
having an alarm go off
shortly before you need to head out
to go pick up the kids from school
or when you need to wake up
(just in case
you turn off the other alarm in your sleep)
helps things go much more smoothly.
Besides that,
being late for picking up
or dropping off
my kiddos
really and truly bothers me
and can throw my mood off
for a good chunk of the day.
So being on time for those
helps prevent
a possible crummy day.

Really,
all of the things I do
to deal with the ups and downs
of my particular flavor of disorder
are pretty basic.
However,
I’ve found
that on the worst days
it’s the basic things
that are the hardest to do,
and when I can’t manage them,
I feel worse about myself
on top of being depressed.
So instead of feeling as if I’ve failed
to even get the basic things done,
I take steps on the easier days
to make the harder days
easier.
It all evens out in the end,
and more importantly,
knowing that I am doing more
than just surviving with this disorder,
that I am
through awareness and planning
learning to live with this disorder,
makes the bit of extra work
worth it
at the end of the day –
on the good ones
and on the not so good ones.