A friend who was recently in a car wreck asked “Why is it that I feel like nothing is good or right, nothing seems interesting, and even though I’m doing well … I feel like a failure?”

The answer is: depression is a symptom of inflammation, as well as a symptom of terrible sleep. When your entire body is sore and your nervous system is still dumping adrenaline in with hypervigilance, this is normal. Address the inflammation, work on better sleep, and know it’ll pass.

The writing equivalent, which rarely has as clear a source as the car getting struck and going airborne, is “Why is my brain mush and the words won’t come?”

Well, there are plenty of possible reasons – but before you start diving into trying to analyze and see if you need to fix the story, please consider it might be a symptom of something that needs fixed in the current treatment of your body.

Therefore, I present:
The Self-Care Checklist

1. Hydrate!
   1. No, not soda, nor alcohol. You know this.
2. How’s your blood sugar? Have you eaten lately?
3. If you’re hungry and food doesn’t fix it, it’s probably a crossed wire and you’re thirsty. Hydrate!
4. If you’re thirsty and water sounds terrible / doesn’t fix it, you’re likely low on electrolytes. Add salts!
5. Check your caffeine levels! Is that dull, vague headache and brain fog caffeine withdrawal symptoms?
6. Have you moved your meat sack in the last hour? Stretch! Get the blood flowing, and the lymph nodes flushing with movement!
7. Have you chronically under-moved your meatsack lately? Remember, you can avoid the pain of exercise by sitting there and enduring months of feeling weaker and more exhausted, mentally dulled and randomly aching… or you can front-load the pain with muscle soreness after the first few days of exercise, and feel far better and clearer-headed afterward! Active body == active imagination!
8. Speaking of pain, are you sitting there ignoring the misery and not getting around to taking a painkiller? Get up, and go change your socks, drink a bottle of water, and take your ibuprofen.
9. How well did you sleep last night? And the night before that? And the night before that? Chronic sleep deprivation makes the thinkmeats mush. What are you going to do to fix that?
10. How dim is your environment? No, you are not a cave troll. Add light.
11. Have you gotten at least 10 minutes of daylight today? Go do that. That’s the minimum to maintain not just your Vitamin D, but a whole host of other biological processes, including sleep regulation. If it’s too cold out, go sit by a window and get filtered sunlight instead of none. If still not an option, have you gotten at least 10 minutes with a SAD light today?
12. How cluttered is your immediate environment? Visual chaos is still chaos, and it will add to low-level stress. Take five minutes and pick a pile to Put Away. You don’t have to clean everything; just create one clean section of one flat surface, like your desk. Repeat, as practical.
13. Did you actually take all of your meds this morning? What about last night?
14. When was the last time you changed your house air filters? When was the last time you cleaned the HEPA filter on the vacuum cleaner? When was the last time you mopped?
15. When was the last time you took antihistamines? Does the house contain things you are allergic to? Did you snack on something you can’t digest well over the last 24 hours? Take your antihistamines.
16. Did you take the antihistamines that make the words go away? Then clean instead of trying to write, and ride it out, checking to see if different antihistamines will work as well but let you get the words out.
17. Are you sick and ignoring it? Go see / schedule an appointment the clinic; it’s worse than you think it is. (Judgement is the first thing to go.)
18. Go take a long, hot shower. It won’t fix the cause, but it’ll alleviate a number of the symptoms.

What did I miss?