I had a bad mental health day on Sunday. I went to a concert Saturday night (DJ Shadow at the Park West in Chicago) and treated my oldest friend to the tickets as a birthday present, even though I’m not really a Shadow fan. It was a late night, and I even left the show early, which I never do, because I knew I wanted to get up early enough to meet other friends at a burger festival.
Worst. Night of sleep. Ever. Out of nowhere, I had an evening of poor-quality sleep. I slept heavily and didn’t wake up in the middle of the night, but I woke up exhausted. I don’t remember any nightmares. I felt heavy, like I was depressed and completely out of it. My body ached. It was the feeling of the worst hangover you can imagine, which is ironic since I have been sober for five years.
I’m slammed with work, trying to release this book out into the world for you all, but I was totally useless on Sunday. “No napping!!!” my doc texted me. I napped anyway. It didn’t help. Coffee didn’t help either. My psychiatrist urged me suck it up and go to the burger fest, but I was feeling so horrible I didn’t think I could stomach a burger anyway, so I didn’t go. As a result, I was bored as hell. I just lay on the couch watching MSNBC for hours.
Then it came time to do something else to alleviate the boredom. I watched an episode of Fear the Walking Dead and then afterward, I turned up the music loud so that I could hang on my patio and hear it. I was on a female kick — Waxahatchee, Joni Mitchell, Liz Phair, Veruca Salt. I was determined to stay up until 9 — a reputable bedtime. And thanks to my music — my higher power — I was able to.
Sunday night I slept for 12.5 glorious hours, waking up refreshed and ready to hit the ground running on my manuscript again.
How do bad mental health days manifest for you? How often do they happen? I get them every couple months. What do you do about them?
