#softspoonie

to those facing medical or psychiatric gaslighting: you are the expert on yourself. you are the only person on this planet who can decide if something is happening to you. this is your mind, body, and life. no one else has access to experiencing that but you. you can trust yourself. i believe in you and i am so sorry the people who say they’re there to help and treat you are hurting you.

I have a hard time with tasks and I know how hard it can be to find advice that isn’t “Just do it,” so I thought I’d share somethings that have helped me:

1. Start with the simplest or quickest thing. For example, if you’re cleaning, pick a task (throw away garbage), pick a location (desk), repeat (throw out garbage on floor). If you’re expressing emotions, make simple statements like “I feel lost.”

2. Take. Breaks. If you have a hard time telling when to stop, set timers. When taking your breaks, make sure you’ve eaten and drank, and do something you like. If you crash through the whole thing to get it done, you don’t leave yourself energy to do other things - or repeat the task when you need to.

3. Do it your way. Change the instructions. Do it in a different order. Even if it’s something like school work - if you can write an essay at a different word count or by slightly going off topic: Do that. Something is better than nothing.

4. But, sometimes nothing is better than something. You can’t do things all the time. And some things you have to save for another day so you can do something else - even if that something else is laying in bed. That’s okay. You’re a person, not a machine. 

TL;DR: Start with the simplest or quickest thing. Don’t exhaust yourself and take breaks. Do the thing in the way that makes sense to you, even if it’s not the way you’ve been told to do it. Pick and choose your battles and save some things for another day.