I have been trying out various therapy services lately (they all suck and do nothing, but that’s another topic). One of the things that the therapists always ask/say is if I do “self care” or tell me to do more “self care”. They talk about all kinds of different things that range from eating right to eating something as a treat to exercising to going for a walk to finding a hobby to etc.

So it seems like “self care” is literally anything that benefits your existence. And I’m quite frankly confused. I live alone and have zero responsibilities outside of work. Isn’t every moment of every day when I’m not working considered self care? When I go home at the end of the day, I have dinner and dick around on the internet. I don’t have kids or pets so there’s nothing else to worry about. I don’t have any extra responsibilities. My continued existence is “self care”. I don’t get it.

What I would understand in all of this is if I had maybe like kids or a sick family member I had to take care of. Is that who “self care” is for? People that have extra responsibilities? Because for those of us loners, basically our entire existence is self care. So I’m confused at what any of that is supposed to accomplish. I already do everything for myself.

  • Annoyed_🦀
    2•2 days ago

    I don’t think there’s even a definitive category for it, it’s basically anything that you do because you like it. Like splurging on food once in a while, watching good movie, take a day off and just relax, go out for a walk, going the vacation you always wanted to, buy that thing that you’ve been keep on hold for some times, pet a snake, go for a hike, anything that you can do to yourself and can help you calm yourself down and makes you happy.

    They always asked this because everyone is so different, defining it for their patient is hard, you need to know it yourself. How long ago since you’ve changed your afterwork habit? Maybe they think you doing the same thing over and over again is the reason you’re stuck in this situation? Baring being send by someone else demand, you gonna need to know why you seek therapy in the first place. Actually THEY need to help you figure out, so i understand why you said they’re terrible at that.

    Personally, doing “selfcare” is doing something i like that i don’t do regularly. Getting froyo is one, splurging on food is another, hiking as well.