Self-care: What is it?

Let’s Talk About Self-Care

What is self-care? It’s defined as maintaining health through health-promoting activities and managing illness (Riegel et al., 2021). Self-care sounds very easy and basic, but as you’ll soon see, it can be very challenging.

There are several factors that can affect self-care, but they can be summarized into two main categories: illness-related factors and behavior change.

Illness-Related Factors

Illness-related factors can make self-care much more difficult. These issues include having multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity), such as autism, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, fibromyalgia, etc.—all at the same time. It can be very difficult to complete self-care activities when multiple health conditions interfere with performing them or limit how active you can be.

Sometimes, when you’ve lived with a chronic condition for a long time, you learn to live with the symptoms. This is not always a good thing. It can lead to not recognizing when the condition is flaring up or when you should be asking for help. Because let’s face it—it's okay to ask for help. It shows strength!

Unfortunately, this often leads to the ever-spiraling "flare of despair." You’ve ignored the symptoms to the point where you’re struggling to function with daily activities, and you start to wonder if this will ever end—or what the point of life really is.

But there is a GREAT point to life. Don’t forget that.

You were put in this universe for a purpose—we all were—and it’s important to remember that. It’s not your fault that you got the genetic lot of mutations. (Too bad they’re not like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, right?) But hey—you’re unique compared to the rest of the population. That is AWESOME.

Then there are the ever-so-common curveballs of life—those unexpected events that interact with illness and often prevent healthy behaviors. You know what I’m talking about: you trip, twist your ankle, hurt your back—and now you’re unable to be physically active. Those are the curveballs I mean.

Behavior Change

Then there's the category of behavior change. Several behavior-related factors can cause you to struggle with self-care—it’s that simple. I’d say all these factors play a fairly equal role in why people who struggle with self-care tend to continue struggling.

Starting with attachment to unhealthy behaviors—this is common because unhealthy behaviors have often been a comfort for so long that no one wants to let them go. From poor eating habits to a sedentary lifestyle to too much screen time, the reasons are usually very similar.

Then there’s the lack of motivation to change. There’s usually a desire to change, but the motivation to follow through and do the work just isn’t there. Every person has a different driving factor when it comes to motivation.

There’s also the difficulty of deciding when in life to start living a healthy lifestyle. Most people struggle with this and only make lifestyle changes when faced with a life-or-death situation—or when a family member is.

And finally, there’s the struggle to maintain healthy behavior over time. This happens a lot—especially in today’s world of “live fast” or “watch the world slip away.” There’s little emphasis placed on the long-term benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

All of these behavior-related challenges will be discussed in more depth in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

References

Riegel, B., Dunbar, S., Fitzsimons, D., Freeland, K., Lee, C., Middleton, S., . . . Jaarsma, T. (2021, April). Self-care research: Where are we now? Where are we going? International Journal Nursing Student, 116. doi: doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.103402.