Coping with being Housebound/Bedbound

When your chronic illness get s to the point that it limits your ability to go outside or even go into your living room the mental effects can be absolutley devastating. As I talked about before in "Young & Housebound, your not alone." To the many of us out there who have become "invisible" due to our illnesses. It is a very frightenning event to live through but with time despair will wade and contentment wash in.  Now I won't say that you will always feel content all the time while living with severe limitations. It's an immensely difficult thing to go through and it is okay if you feel sadness or despair or anger from time to time. I just wanted to share with you what has helped me.

1.  MoodBoard 

If you've browsed my blod you'll know that I post about something called Bedspo & #POTD's.

I love these concepts so much because they help me find silver linings in my day to day life. They help me to feel a sense of content and they help me express myself. I think less about how hard it is to be inside and more about how these pictures inspire me to make my life beautiful.

      2. Nature

Being unable to go out regularly can make you incredibly cut off. Have someone help decorate your room with plants and various things from outside like seashells and rocks and dried flowers ect.

If you can not water a plant regularly you can always get fake plants. Nature Tapestries are also helpful as they give you the feeling of a natural backdrop.

      3. Indoor Gardening

To add on to Nature Indoor gardenning is a great way to kill some time, bring in some fresh greens to look at or eat, and give you something to look forward to. Watch your green baby grow.

     4. Projects and Hobbies. & Routine

I find myself pursuing a large variety of hobies and taking up different projects that keep me occupied for days. It's important to find different things to do throughout the day so that you don't find yourself staring into a void of boredom which will inevitably invite negative thoughts you don't need! 

Some of my favourite things/Projects to do throughout the day are:  Writing, Videography, Online Classes, Making Art, Playing Instruments, Reading, Window or Porch watching, the list goes on.
Having events at home is also great when you can handle it.

Routine is also very important waking up at a certain time everyday(I wake up at 10am) and picking out what you will wear for the day will help you feel much more put together. You can even assign certain days for certain activities or make a "When I can list" for the day instead of a To Do list. Another thing I used to do was take shreds of paper and write out different activities to do and I would just pull one out when I was bored. I try to wake up and start doing Chair aerobics if possible.

      5. Skype & Video support groups

When your stuck indoors, Isolation can become an enormous issue. Many of us don't get a lot of visitors and our social lives extend to whoever we live with and online. Skyping on a regular basis can lessen the weight of the isolation.

Video support groups take this to another level because we can connect with others who are also housebound or bedbound.

Check out these groups -
https://paincommunity.org/
https://chronicpainanonymous.org/find-meetings/video-chat-meetings/

& Check out this thing called BedFest.
https://www.bedfest.meaction.net/the-project