How To Fight The Chronic Illness Boredom

While staying at home most days and spending copious amounts of time in bed sound great in theory, living this reality every day is dull as door nails. Full House and Bollywood movies are nice, sure, but can only entertain a gal for so long. And days tend to blend together in a bad sort of way when you’ve got nothing to do. So here are my tips for beating the boredom:

SNAIL MAIL

Long lost family members (Aunt Ethel three times removed and her little puppy chihuahua), friends, nursing home patients, strangers… I kid, don’t write letters to strangers; that’s weird and potentially dangerous. But seriously, writing letters and sending happy mail is just that - happy. Now that I have some seriously fabulous pen pals, I’m always on the lookout for cute snail mail ideas and getting new stickers and sparkley stuff to send. Spoonies make great pen pals, and I’m pretty sure there is a Spoonie Pen Pal Service circling around somewhere. Bottom line, if there’s someone who is kind, caring, who you connect with and is not a creepy stalker, send ‘em a card.

MAKE READING A HABIT

Reading is one of the only reasons I’m still sane right now so you should try it. Make friends with your local library. Mine has a cool ebook service so I can “rent” books without even leaving the house; incredibly convenient for bad days. I’ve actually scheduled daily time for reading and it’s helped keep the yawns away. I’ve always been an avid reader, but audiobooks are awesome if that’s more your thing. Check out Librivox if you are looking for free audio recordings. If you like to read, go for big books with lots of volumes ‘cause it’ll keep you busy for a long time, which is good for those of us who suffer from chronic boredome syndrom.

STRETCHING

Setting aside a designated time and space for some gentle stretching/ relaxation/ easy yoga is really good. It’s usually pretty doable for most people as it’s adaptable. One day you’re having a lot of pain and low blood pressure? Stretch on a bed laying down. One day your knees are painful and stiff? Do some upper body yoga while sitting. Very customizable, see? Plus any type of movement releases positive endorphins and can help with feeling the blues or anxiety.

FIND AN ONLINE HOBBY

If you are mostly/ completely bed bound or are having a flare, an online hobby can be a great sanity saver. I’m not talking about social media here guys. Start researching your geneology or find blogs about an interest you have. There’s blogs out there for everything, y’all. Maybe you’re a Whovian and you want to start writing fan fic or you might want to sign up for Ancestry.com.

PAMPER YO’ SELF

When in doubt, pamper yourself out. That’s my motto. Put a nice outfit on. Try out a new hair style or makeup trend. Youtube and Pinterest will help you out on this one. Take a nice bath, paint your nails a cool color, throw on some jewelry… I think you get the idea. Something about making oneself look fabulous turns Netflixing into something waaayyy more exciting than having tea with the Queen of England. And that’s pretty exciting guys. I personally have no experience in Queenly matters but I imagine it’s super cool so…

VIDEO GAMES FOR THOSE IN DIRE STRAITS

If you get REALLY desperate, there are always video games. I’m not saying you should play Call Of Duty and The Legend of Zelda, but I’m also not saying that you shouldn’t. Just try to limit screen time or else you’ll end up with red eyes at five in the morning trying to destroy Ganondorf and forgetting your nightly medications. ‘K?

#invisibleillness #fibromyalgia #dysautonomia #spoonie #ibd #gastroparesis #crohns