The October Slide. What a phenomenon. Every year when the temperature starts to change, the barometric pressure changes, the leaves fall, and we officially go into fall, those of us with chronic illness begin to go into what we affectionately call “The October Slide”.
This year is no different. As September came to a close and October began to change the season for me, I began feeling this wonderful phenomenon. Instead of my baseline pain, I began feeling more than normal pain on a day to day basis and even flared really badly for almost two weeks. The pain in all my joints flared, moving became a lot more difficult, and the fatigue…oh the fatigue.
After all our traveling in September between home and North Carolina, and finally settling back at home, I was excited to get all of our stuff unpacked and the house back in order, only to be riddled with the October slide. It really did a number on me physically, but also emotionally. I felt like yet again I couldn’t do anything for my house, my husband, my dogs. Like I was always going to feel bad. I felt like a failure. That’s the thing with our chronic illnesses, we get in a flare and we we begin to ride the cycle of negativity until it drops us in a pit we can’t get out of unless, when we start feeling better, we can remind ourselves of who we are in Christ, of who God created us to be, and that we are able to help our families.
How do we do that? How do we pull ourselves out of the pit and get back into a good headspace?
First, in order to get my head out of the spiral, I have multiple ways that I like to stop the flood from overwhelming me and take myself out of my head first.
- Watch TV – sometimes a good show can help me get my head out of my problems and into the story I’m watching.
- Read a Book – the same principle as above applies to reading a book. What I love about reading in a time like this is that I not only read the words, but visualize the story in my head which helps me stop the spiral.
- Playing a video game – I love this method of stopping the spiral the most because not only am I in a storyline, but I’m also critically thinking because I’m having to figure out what I need to do. This is my best method of stopping the spiral.
Once I’ve stopped the nasty thoughts screaming in my head, I’m able to then think more clearly and allow myself to recognize that those things I’ve been screaming at myself about how I’m a bad wife, or mom, or housekeeper, or whatever, aren’t true. I am able to see that this bad day is just that – a bad day. A day when my chronic illness has disabled me. A day when my body needs more rest and that it’s OK.
I also take a moment to remind myself that even though it’s a bad day, mentally and health wise, God is still with me. He is still taking care of me. He is holding my hand while I am dealing with all of this. It may be a bad day, but He is still with me.
Sometimes that is hard to remember, but at all times He is still God and He still loves me.
What are some ways you deal with the spiral of thoughts on a bad day or during the October Slide? If you need some ideas on taking care of yourself, be sure to grab the Self Care Toolkit.
