This is my disgusting story of how I came to create my morning routine, which helped me override a lot of the aspects of my crippling depression.
For a sizable amount of my life, I’ve struggled with depression, and for a sizable amount of my adult life, that’s affected my sleep and my hygiene. I didn’t have a great foundation when it came to hygiene, even at the best of times.
As a child, I would go weeks without a bath/shower or cleaning my teeth. My mum just never bothered to check if I ever did those things, and that became my way of life, not looking after myself. When that’s coupled with relentless depression, depression that led to you being suicidal by the time I was eight, such things just don’t matter.
For a large part of my adult life, I was also without a job. Instead, I was struggling with psychosis triggered by my anxiety, and because I wasn’t working, I rarely had anything to do. This would just feed my depression. I would go weeks without changing my clothes. I’d sleep in my around-the-house clothes, get out of bed and move to my sofa, and then spend the day there until it was time to go to bed again, in the clothes I was still wearing. And that was my life.
I’d be lucky to remember to clean my teeth by 14.00-16.00, and I’d often forget because of this, as it’s easy to get distracted once your day is in motion, even if that motion is watching TV or gaming. That would pretty much be my day right there, watching TV and gaming. But I wasn’t happy.
The longer I lived like this, the worse I felt. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year of doing the exact same thing. Nothing. Eventually, I realised things had to change as I became tired of existing in my own filth. I decided to create a morning routine.
My morning routine wasn’t anything flashy. It was really basic, but needed. A morning routine doesn’t have to be some elaborate plan with fitness and other wellbeing activities. If anything, having a basic morning routine is the best way to go in my book.
Part of wanting to create a morning routine was to make sure I took my medication because I’d often forget in the haziness of moving from my bed to my sofa. So this made up the first part of my morning routine. I would start by taking my medication.
After I took my medication, I’d clean my teeth while scrolling through my TV guide to see what shows to record or set up a notification for. This paired the two together, as I was already looking through the TV guide when I woke up to see what I’d be doing that day, anyway.
After that, I’d spit out the toothpaste and go to the toilet. When I washed my hands, I’d use my wet hands to help wash my face, and boom. I had my basic morning routine locked down. Again, this paired hand washing with washing my face, so it all tied in together.
It didn’t take long before this basic morning routine started having an impact on my general mental wellbeing. Before long, I stopped sleeping in my around-the-house clothes, so I was changing before bed and getting dressed in the morning. I also wasn’t sleeping in because of my depression anymore, either.
What was important in making the morning routine stick was to never change the sequence of my morning routine and to never allow myself to skip it. With that rule in place to safeguard my basic morning routine, other things started to fall into place. Locking in such a basic routine will help you to still follow that morning routine even when you’re depressed or even hung over.
I now don’t forget to clean my teeth, nor do I spend months in clothes I’ve not taken off once during that time. This little change had a big impact on my quality of life. Now, I try to eat 15 minutes after cleaning my teeth.
All this was happening when I was living in a single room, which just adds to the bleakness of anyone’s living situation. Just you and your four walls aren’t a great mix, and when you throw mental health issues into the mix, it can become a disaster.
So if you don’t have a morning routine yet, then try to establish a similar rule for yourself and create a basic morning routine to follow. You can always build on your morning routine at a later date by using habit stacking.
Thank you for reading my musings about my personal experience with establishing a morning routine. If you would like this article, then you might also like to check out the companion piece, ‘The Real World Benefits Of Establishing A Morning Routine‘ by clicking here.